HARVEST BRODIÆA. LARGE-FLOWERED BRODIÆA.

Brodiæa grandiflora, Smith. Lily Family.

Corm.—Fibrous-coated. Leaves.—Narrowly linear; somewhat cylindrical. Scape.—Four to twelve inches high. Pedicels.—Three to ten, rarely one; unequal. Perianth.—Violet; waxen; ten to twenty lines long; broadly funnel-form; six-cleft; lobes recurving. Stamens.—Three; opposite the inner segments. Staminodia.—Three; strap-shaped; entire; white; erect; about equaling the stamens. Ovary.—Sessile; three-celled. Style stout. Stigma three-lobed. Hab.—From Ventura to the British boundary in the Coast Ranges and Sierras.

In the latter part of May and early in June, just as the grain is mellowing in the fields, the dry grasses of our hill-slopes and roadsides begin to reveal the beautiful blossoms of the "harvest Brodiæa." Seen at its best, this is one of our finest species. It sends up a scape a foot high, bearing from five to ten of the large, lily-like, violet flowers. They are somewhere described as varying to rose. I have never seen them of this color, though a flash of them caught when riding by a field is often suggestive of a pink flower.

These plants vary considerably in size, in some localities blooming when but an inch or two high, and in others having their tall scape crowned with as many as ten of the fine blossoms. These have their segments nerved with brown upon the outside. The clear-white stamens stand opposite the outer segments, alternating with the white staminodia. The leaves have dried away before the coming of the blossoms.

B. terrestris, Kell., common throughout Central California, is always found in sandy soil. Its perianth is less than an inch long, and its staminodia are yellow, with inrolled edges. This is clearly distinguished by these characteristics, added to the fact that its flower-cluster has no common stalk or scape, but seems to sit upon the ground, giving the separate flowers the appearance of coming from the ground.

[HARVEST BRODIÆA—Brodiæa grandiflora.]