The Latin name of this genus (from the word dens, a tooth), translated into the vernacular, becomes toothwort, the termination wort signifying merely plant or herb.

It was so named because of the toothed rootstocks of many species.

The little tubers upon the root often have a pungent taste, from which comes one of the other common names—"pepper-root." Various other names have been applied to these flowers, such as "lady's smocks" and "milkmaids."

[TOOTHWORT—Dentaria Californica.]

ZYGADENE.

Zygadenus Fremonti, Michx. Lily Family.

Bulb.—Dark-coated. Leaves.—Linear; a foot or two long; deeply channeled. Scape.—Three inches to even four feet high. Flowers.—White. Perianth Segments.—Six; strongly nerved; bearing at base yellow glands; inner segments clawed. Stamens.—Six; shorter than the perianth. Ovary.—Three-celled. Styles three; short. Capsule.—Three-beaked. Hab.—Coast Ranges, San Diego to Humboldt County.

The generic name, Zygadenus, is from the Greek, and signifies yoked glands, referring to the glands upon the base of the perianth segments.

We have several species, the most beautiful and showy of which is Z. Fremonti. This is widely distributed, and grows in very different situations. In our central Coast Range its tall stems, with their lovely clusters of white stars, make their appearance upon rocky hill-slopes with warm exposure, in the shelter of the trees, soon after the toothwort has sprinkled the fields with its white bloom. In the south it rears its tall stems upon open mesas, unprotected by the shelter of friendly tree or shrub, and in some localities it makes itself at home in bogs. It is possible that the future may reveal the presence of more than one species.