Lily-like plants with leafy stems, usually with tufts of grass-like leaves at the base and rootstocks or occasionally bulbs.

The flowers small and distinctly 6-parted, with the same number of stamens and three styles; the flowers grow in close heads at the top of the stems.

Stem 2—8 feet high, very leafy, softly hairy especially above. Leaves dark green above, paler and hairy beneath, prominently veiny and sheathing at the base, oval or elliptic, acute, 6—12 inches long, 3—6 inches broad, the upper becoming successively narrower. Flowers yellowish-green, numerous in a spreading head often 2 feet long, with drooping branches; perianth segments oblong or oblanceolate, acute, ¼—½ an inch long, twice as long as the stamens.

In swamps and on moist slopes and stream borders throughout the region, frequently growing in great masses. In the Rockies it seldom grows below 6000 feet elevation, but is found much lower in the moist valley of the Selkirks.

Very glaucous throughout, with a cluster of narrow, grass-like leaves 5—10 inches long and ¼ inch broad, from a chaffy bulbous root; stem whitish-green or purplish, 1—2 feet high, with scattered, purple, leaf-like bracts and an open head of flowers 4—12 inches long; flowers greenish-white, open, ½ an inch or more across the six petals and sepals with a large, bright green gland at the base; stamens 6, erect, forming a central column, anthers scarlet on the opening of the bud, changing to yellow; styles 3.

Throughout the Rockies up to 6000 or 7000 feet elevation, in all kinds of situations and soils, a most attractive plant worthy, of a place in the flower-garden, blossoming during midsummer.

A slender, yellowish-green plant 8—12 inches high, from an elongated ovoid bulb. Leaves narrow and grass-like, rough on the margins and midribs, all with sheaths around the stem. Flowers light yellow, ¼ of an inch broad in a compact head 2—3 inches long; stamens exserted, anthers yellow.

On open grassy hillsides in the Rockies from Banff to Castle Mountain, flowering in June.

Smooth 12—18 inches high from a bulbous base. Leaves 2—3 from the same root, 8—10 inches long, ½ an inch broad, spreading. Flowers 6—20, greenish-purple, ½ an inch long, open, drooping, in a simple slender head; sepals and petals 3 each, with recurved tips; stamens 6, included.

In moist woods throughout the Rockies, growing in moss; the dark green, widely spreading leaves and wand-like stem of drooping bell-like flowers, making a graceful and attractive plant during early summer.

Low with numerous tufted grass-like leaves 1—2 inches long. Flowers 6-parted, minute, greenish-white in a compact oblong head ¼ of an inch long, elongated in fruiting; stamens 6; anthers yellow not exceeding the perianth; head of flowers borne on a slender, smooth stem 3—7 inches high.

Abundant throughout the Rockies in damp sandy or gravelly ground, on the flood-plains and banks of rivers and streams and on the gravelly shores of lakes and ponds; flowering in June.

Plant with a cluster of grass-like leaves, 3—8 inches long and about ¼ of an inch broad, yellowish-green, from an oblique and chaffy rootstock. Flowers few, less than ¼ of an inch long, pale yellow, 6-parted, on very short pedicels; stamens 6, slightly exserted, with purple anthers; the whole in a compact head about ½ an inch long, on a stem 8—10 inches high, with sticky hairs near the top.

Frequent throughout the region at an altitude of 4000 to 5000 feet, in wet open situations with shallow soil; flowering in June.

Similar to the preceding but readily distinguished by its taller stem and more open head of flowers, with longer sepals and pedicels, which are twice as long in each case.

In the Selkirks only, but frequent there in the bogs around Roger’s Pass.