FURTHER STUDIES OF YUCCAS. 199 



observed to attempt to feed on the slight stigmatic secre- 

 tion nor to search for food at the base of the flower, where, 

 if anywhere, the nectar of the septal glands should be 



found. 



In this Yucca, the short spreading pedicels do not become 

 erect after the fertilization of the flowers, as is the case 

 in the capsular species, nor do they become markedly 

 pendent as in gloriosa and all of the baccate species, but 

 they maintain their original direction during the ripening 

 of the fruit. As in all of the Yuccas, the maturing fruit 

 develops a rather firm but thin core-like endocarp imme- 

 diately surrounding the seeds, but in this species the thick 

 exocarp, instead of becoming pulpy as in the baccate spe- 

 cies, or hard as in the dehiscent capsular section, assumes a 

 spongy texture. The ripe fruit, readily breaking from the 

 tree, consequently possesses large bulk and low specific 



gravity. 



Y. gloriosa, L. — Professor Kiley* states that this 

 species, which occurs in the aloifolia region of the south- 

 east, is pollinated by Pronuba yuccasdla when it chances 

 to bloom in the season of the moth, which appears 

 when the earlier forms of Y.jilamentosa are in flower; but 

 its blooming is more commonly later, often autumnal, so 

 that it less frequently produces fruit than aloifolia, and 

 Dr. Mellichamp writes me that although he has seen many 

 blooming plants he never has seen fruit of gloriosa but 

 once, and that was from a summer inflorescence. Like 

 aloifolia, the present species, in some of its rather numer- 

 ous forms, is said to fruit occasionally when Pronuba does 

 not occur to pollinate it.t Engelmann has shown, how- 



* l. c. 116, 117. 



t Ellacombe, in the Gardeners' Chronicle for 1880, xiii. p. 21, reports 

 that in England he has more than once had well formed fruit on Y. re- 

 curvifolia, but the seeds did not come to maturity; and in the same 

 journal for 1885, xxiv. p. 628, he mentions what appears to be the same 

 form, under the name of Y. recurva, as having fruited in 1876, some of 

 the fruits and seeds having been sent to Kew and to Dr. Engelmann, a 

 few abortive fruits, which soon fell off, having also appeared in 1885. On 



