Botanical Magazine 106 - 1880.pdf - hibiscus.org

TAB. 6527.
CALOCHORTUS PULCHELLUS.
Native of California.
Nat. Ord. LILIáCEA.•Tribe TULIPES.
Genus CALOCHOBTTJS, Pursh ; {Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. x'iv. p. 302.)
CALOCHOETUS (Macrodenus) •pulchellus ; bulbo ovoideo, foliis basalibus 1-2 lineari-
bus vel lanceolatis firmis glabris, caule subpedali superne ramoso, floribus 6-12
pendulis laxe corymbosis, perianthii globosi lutei segmentis exterioribus oblongis
acutis glabris, interioribus orbiculatis facie et margine pilosis conspicue íbveo-
latis, staminibus periantbio duplo brevioribus antheris oblongis, capsulis
oblongis profunde trilobatis angulis dorso alâtis.
C. pulcbellus, Dougl. MSS. ; Wood in Proc. Acad. Phil. 1868, p. 168 ; Baker
in Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xiv. p. 303 ; S. Wats, in Proc. Amer. Acad.
vol. xiv. p. 262.
Cyclobothra pulcbella, Benth. in Trans. Hort. Soc. n. s. vol. i. p. 415, tab. 14, fig. 1 ;
Lindl. in Bot. Reg. t. 1662 ; Kunth Enum. vol. iv. p. 228 ; Regel Garten-
flora, tab. 802.
The Calochorti, of which between twenty and thirty
species are now known, belong exclusively to California,
British Columbia, the Rocky Mountains, and Mexico, and
one and all seem to require greater heat than an English
summer gives tliem to mature their bulbs properly. The
present species and C. albus are well marked from all the
others by their more robust habit and numerous large
drooping globose flowers, which never expand fully and are
much less fugitive than in the more brilliantly-coloured
C. venustiis and its neighbours. Calochortus and Cyclo-
bothra slide into one another so gradually that it is not
worth keeping them up as distinct genera.
The present plant was one of those introduced by
Douglas about 1830, when travelling for the Royal Horti-
cultural Society, and was originally described and figured
by Mr. Bentham half a century ago. Our drawing was
made from a specimen that flowered at Kew in the summer
of 1879.
KOVEMBEE 1ST, 1880.