COAST LILY.
Lilium maritimum, Kell. Lily Family.
Bulb.—Conical; twelve to eighteen lines thick, with closely appressed scales. Stem.—One to three feet high; slender. Leaves.—Seldom, if at all, whorled; linear or narrowly oblanceolate; obtuse; one to five inches long. Flowers.—One to five; deep blood-red; spotted with purple; long-pediceled; horizontal. Perianth-segments.—Six; lanceolate; eighteen lines long; the upper third somewhat recurved. Hab.—Near the Coast, from San Mateo to Mendocino County.
The little Coast lily is found most abundantly in the black peat bogs of Mendocino County, though it ranges southward to San Mateo County and northward to Humboldt County.
Mr. Purdy says of it: "It is seldom seen farther than two miles from the ocean. On the edges of the bogs the lily is often a dwarf, blossoming at three or four inches. In the bogs it roots itself in the tufts, and becomes a lovely plant five feet high with ten or fifteen fine blossoms."
The leaves are dark, glossy green and the blossoms are more cylindrical than funnel-form, the three inner segments spreading more than the outer, which remain almost erect. The little oval anthers, with cinnamon-colored pollen, almost fill the narrow tube and conceal the fact that the segments are yellow below and more decidedly spotted.