[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Desert Lily=
_Hesperocállis undulàta_
=White
Spring
Cal., Ariz.=]
This is the only one of its kind, a wonderfully beautiful desert
plant, much like an Easter Lily. The stout, pale, bluish stem, from
six inches to two feet tall, has a delicate "bloom" and springs from a
graceful cluster of narrow leaves, which are a foot and a half long,
spreading widely, but not lying quite flat on the ground. They are
pale bluish-green, with a narrow, crinkled, white border and folded
lengthwise. The buds are bluish and the lovely flowers are about three
inches long and pure-white, delicately striped with pale-green and
blue on the outside, with yellow anthers and a white stigma, and with
a papery bract at the base of each pedicel. The flowers are slightly
fragrant and become papery and curiously transparent as they wither.
In dry seasons these plants do not bloom at all, but the slightest
moisture will cause them to send up a stout stem and crown it with
exquisite blossoms, which look extraordinarily out of place on the
arid desert sand around Yuma and Ft. Mohave. The bulb is eaten by the
Indians.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Desert Lily--Hesperocallis undulata.]
[Illustration]
Lilies, the "lords of gardens," are perhaps the most beautiful
and popular flowers everywhere and there are some wonderful ones
in the West. They have tall, smooth, leafy stems, springing from
scaly bulbs; large showy flowers, solitary or in terminal clusters;
smooth, netted-veined leaves, often in whorls, and leaflike bracts.
The flower-cup is funnel-formed, or bell-shaped, and has six, equal,
spreading divisions, with a honey-bearing groove at the base of
each; the stamens, with long anthers, swinging from the tips of long
filaments; a long pistil, with a three-lobed stigma and the capsule
oblong, with two rows of flat seeds in each of its cells. There are no
true Lilies in Utah.
[Sidenote: =Small Tiger Lily=
_Lílium párvum_
=Orange-red
Summer
Cal., Oreg.=]
These tall plants carry a brilliant crown of small lilies, glowing like
jewels in the dark moist woods they love. The stem is from one and a
half to six feet high, covered with a slight down that rubs off, and
springs from a small bulb with short, thick scales. The long, pointed,
rich-green leaves are in whorls of five or six below, more scattered
towards the top of the stalk. The flowers are rather more than an inch
long, yellow at the base of the petals, shading through orange to
vermilion at the tips and dotted with crimson in the throat. Usually
there are six or seven in a cluster, but they have been found with many
more in favorable situations and single plants in Yosemite have been
seen with as many as thirty blossoms. The capsule is roundish and less
than an inch long. These little Lilies are among the most attractive of
their kind and grow somewhat freely in the high Sierras to an altitude
of seven thousand feet and as far north as Oregon.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Small Tiger Lily--Lilium parvum.]
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: =Washington Lily
Shasta Lily=
_Lílium Washingtoniànum_
=White
Summer
Cal., Oreg.=]
In the Sierras, at an altitude of from three to over seven thousand
feet, and as far north as the Columbia River, we may be fortunate
enough to find this glorious Lily, growing in the forest in moderate
shade and protected by the chaparral. It is not rare but nowhere
very abundant. I shall never forget finding a group of three or
four, growing near a huge fallen tree, in the woods at Wawona near
Yosemite, where it is very fine. Their raiment is even more "white
and glistering" than the cultivated Easter Lilies. The smooth, stout,
purplish stem is from two to five feet high, adorned all the way up
with successive whorls of handsome dark-green leaves, three or four
inches long, thin in texture, with rippling margins, and shining as
if they had been varnished. There are from two to twenty blossoms of
shining white, each one from three to four inches long and as much
across. The petals are cleft to the base, spreading wide apart when the
flower is fully open, sometimes finely dotted with purple, and becoming
purplish in fading. The anthers are yellow and the pistil green, and
the bulb is large, with thin scales. The scent is delicious, having a
whiff of spicy carnation added to the usual lily fragrance. This is
never found in the Coast Range and is the only pure white American
Lily. Shasta Lily is a variety with a small bulb. _L. Párryi_, the
Lemon Lily, of southern California and Arizona, is similar in the form
of its flowers, which are large and clear yellow, dotted lightly with
deeper yellow. It grows in shady, moist spots in cool canyons and is
very beautiful.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Washington Lily--Lilium Washingtonianum.]
[Sidenote: =Leopard Lily=
_Lílium pardalìnum_
=Orange
Summer
Wash., Oreg., Cal.=]
A magnificent plant, from three to six feet tall, with bright-green
leaves, thin in texture, smooth but not shiny, and mostly in whorls.
The stem is crowned by a splendid cluster of flowers, usually about
half a dozen together, but sometimes as many as thirty on one stalk.
They measure three or four inches across and are pale-orange outside
and deep-orange inside, spotted with maroon, often blotched with
orange-yellow in the throat and tipped with scarlet. The anthers are
purplish, changing to reddish-brown, and the pistil is bright-green.
These plants often grow in large companies, in moist spots in the
mountains, and are unrivaled in decorative beauty and brilliancy of
coloring.
[Sidenote: =Tiger Lily=
_Lílium Columbiànum_
=Orange
Summer
Wash., Oreg.=]
A good deal like the last, but not so large. The petals are more turned
back and they are orange-color all over, dotted with dark-red, and the
anthers are pale orange-color, ripening to golden-brown. This is common
in the Hood River Valley.
[Sidenote: =Ruby Lily
Chaparral Lily=
_Lílium rubéscens_
=White, pink
Summer
Cal., Oreg.=]
A glorious plant, from two to five feet tall, with leaves mostly in
whorls, with rippled edges. The stem bears a magnificent cluster of
blossoms, most wonderful in coloring, for the buds and young flowers
are white, dotted with purple inside, with yellow anthers and a
pale-green pistil, but they gradually change to pink, and deepen to
ruby-purple as they fade, and the anthers and pistil also darken in
color. The effect of the whole cluster is therefore white at the top,
shading through pink to almost crimson below. The flowers are even more
deliciously fragrant than the Washington Lily, which they resemble,
except that they are not quite so large as the latter and stand more
erect and the petals are not so spreading. This usually grows among
chaparral in the Coast Ranges.
[Illustration: Tiger Lily--Lilium Columbianum.