_Bulbs._--Large; often weighing over a pound; with scales two or three inches long. _Stems._--Stout; purplish; three or four feet high; eight- or ten-flowered, or more. _Leaves._--Wavy-margined; roughish; _Flowers._--Large; six to eight inches in diameter; golden yellow; spotted with pale purple, turning to red or brown. _Segments._--Having papillose prominences near the base. (Otherwise like _L. pardalinum_.) _Hab._--The foothills of the Sierras; southward to San Diego.
This wonderful lily, at first glance, resembles the common leopard- or tiger-lily--_L. pardalinum_--and it is found sometimes in the same regions as the latter, but never in the same kind of localities. It affects the loose soil of dry, upland woods, but never grows in wet or boggy places. Its flowers are larger than those of _L. pardalinum_, and have more of a golden hue and less of red in them.
By July this lily is in full bloom and a magnificent sight. A plant was once known which had fifty buds and blossoms, thirty of which were open at once!
_Helianthus annuus_, L. Composite Family.
Hispid, coarse plants. _Stems._--Several feet high. _Leaves._--Mostly alternate; petioled; deltoid-ovate to ovate-lanceolate; acuminate; three to seven inches long; three-ribbed at base. _Flower-heads._--Large; three or four inches across, including the rays; solitary; composed of yellow ray-flowers and purple-brown, tubular disk-flowers. _Involucre._--Of several series of imbricated, ovate, acuminate scales. _Disk._--An inch or so across. _Hab._--Throughout California.
The stately form of the sunflower is a common sight in the south, where whole fields are often covered with the plants. Their season of blossoming is supposed to be in the autumn, but we have seen them blooming just as gayly in March. This wild sunflower of the plains is believed to be the original parent of the large sunflower of our gardens.
Its seeds are used by the Indians as food and in the preparation of hair-oil.
Popular tradition makes this blossom a worshiper of the sun, and it is believed to follow him with admiring glances.
"The lofty follower of the sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her hollow leaves, Drooping all night, and when he warm returns, Points her enamored bosom to his ray."