Yellow Globe-Tulip. Diogenes’ Lantern. Golden Lily-Bell
Calochortus Pulchellus, Dougl. Lily Family
Stems.—Somewhat flexuous, with spreading branches; two inches to a foot or more high. Radical leaf.—Equaling or exceeding the stem; four to twelve lines broad. Sepals.—Greenish or yellow; eight to twelve lines long. Petals.—Yellow; strongly arched; glandular ciliate. Gland.—A deep pit, conspicuously prominent on the outside of the petals, covered within by appressed hairs. (See Calochortus.) Hab.—Coast Ranges, from Monterey to Mendocino County.
DIOGENES’ LANTERN—Calochortus pulchellus.
We have no more charmingly graceful flower than the yellow globe-tulip. A single, long, grasslike leaf precedes the flexuous stem, with its quaintly arched and delicately fringed blossoms. There is a certain quizzical look about these flowers—something akin to the inquiring look of Diogenes, as he thrust his lantern into all sorts of out-of-the-way places in broad daylight. The margins of the petals look as though they had been snipped into a very fine, delicate fringe, unlike the slender, tapering hairs of C. alba.
The Indians are fond of the bulbs, which they eat with great relish, calling them “Bo.”