22 
Colorado Experiment Station 
Figs. 13 - 14.—Death camas; 13, entire plant; 14, fruiting stalk. 
and fruit in the same flowering group. The fruit (figs. 14 and 16) is 
usually 3-parted, the separate parts united except at the very tip. 
Considering the different species found in Colorado, death camas 
occurs throughout the whole state, from low to high altitudes. There 
is some evidence that plants growing at high altitudes belong to a 
species that does not contain as much of the poisonous principle as 
plants at lower elevations. 
Death camas makes its appearance in the spring and early sum¬ 
mer. At lower altitudes the flowers are in bloom during June. Dur¬ 
ing maturing of fruit, the flower stalk may lengthen considerably. It 
is abundant in the foot-hills, sometimes on stony hillsides, also on 
sandy plains, but more abundant in moist, sandy swales. As a rule 
they do not form a close stand; the individual plants are rather scat¬ 
tered. 
Death camas may be confused sometimes with several other 
plants. One of these is the white hellebore (Veratrum speciosum) 
(fig. 17). It has rootstocks instead of bulbs, the Dave's are large and 
oval and clasp the stem, and there are no glands at the base of the 
petals and sepals of the flower.' Another is the spiderwort (Trades- 
cantia), which has leaves very much like those of death camas, but 
no bulb; the flowers are blue and much larger. Another is the sand- 
lily (Leucocrinum), a low plant, close to the ground, with large white 
