FAIRY BELLS. DROPS OF GOLD.
Prosartes Hookeri, Torr. Lily Family.
Rootstock.—Creeping; spreading. Stem.—A foot or two high; branching horizontally. Leaves.—Alternate; ovate; cordate; acute; several-nerved; two or three inches long. Flowers.—Greenish; one to six; six lines long; pendulous under the ends of the branches. Perianth.—Spreading-campanulate. Segments.—Six; lanceolate; arched at the base. Stamens.—Six; equaling or exceeding the perianth. Ovary.—Three-celled. Style slender; entire. Fruit.—An obovate, somewhat pubescent berry; golden, ripening to scarlet. Syn.—Disporum Hookeri, Britt. Hab.—The Coast Ranges from Marin County to Santa Cruz; in shady woods, but not by the water.
In our walks through the April woods, we often notice a fine plant with branching stems, whose handsomely veined leaves are set obliquely to the stem and all lie in nearly the same horizontal plane. In our subsequent meetings with the plant it seems to change but little, and we begin to grow impatient for the coming of the flower, which, however, seems to show no disposition to appear. Some day, when bending over a bit of moss or a fern-frond, or peering into the silk-lined hole of a ground-spider, we suddenly catch a glimmer of something under the broad leaves of our hitherto disappointing plant, and hastening to examine it, we find to our amazement one or more exquisitely formed little green bells hanging from the tip of each branch. Later these are often succeeded by small berries, at first golden, and afterward scarlet.
The generic name, Prosartes, comes from a Greek word signifying to hang from, and is in allusion to the pendulous flowers. By some authorities this plant is called Disporum Hookeri. The common name, "drops of gold," applies to the berry.
Another species P. Menziesii, Don.—is found growing along stream-banks in the Coast Ranges from Marin County northward. This differs from the above in its longer, more cylindrical, milk-white flowers, and its salmon-colored berries. It usually blossoms a little later than the other species, lasting till June.