The dew falls—every bud has drunk its fill:
Bloom of the desert, thou art arid still!
MARY E. MANNIN.
AUGUST 16.
In late spring and early summer upon the fading grasslands and on the dry sunny slopes of the hills, the Mariposa tulips set their long-stemmed chalices of delicate color. Bulbous plants of the lily family, they are frequently called Mariposa lilies, but as a matter of fact their relationship is very near to the true tulips of the Old World, and like the latter, they have been extensively introduced into cultivation both in this country and abroad.
The petals are often conspicuously marked with lines and dots and eye-like spots in a manner that suggests the gay wings of a butterfly, whence the term, "Mariposa", which is the Spanish word for that insect.
ELIZABETH H. SAUNDERS,
in California Wild Flowers.
AUGUST 17.