THE YUCCEAE. 107 
mon about Monterey, sinceno other comparable plant occurs 
about Parras, and the same species is common about Sal- 
tillo, where Gregg’s leaves were collected, though a very 
different plant, some leaves of which, however, might be 
mistaken for some of those of this species, accompanies it in 
the mountains south of that city. It is also seen from about 
San Luis Potosi to the edge of the table-land, and from 
Monterey it reaches southeastwards as far as the central 
part of the state of Tamaulipas. 
Throughout the large area covered by these observa- 
tions, — and which is doubtless capable of extension, — Zz. 
australis is distinguished from all of its congeners by the 
possession of a long rather narrow panicle hanging straight 
down from the cluster of leaves, on a quickly arched base, 
even before anthesis; and as this character is as marked in 
the fruiting clusters and even in the old inflorescence re- 
mains of former years as in the flower clusters, the recog- 
nition of the species is very easy throughout most of the 
territory in which it grows.* Typically it becomes a large 
much and loosely branched rough-barked tree, but in culti- 
vation it often attains gigantic proportions before branch- 
ing, with an extent of many feet of the trunk covered by 
still green leaves, as in the streets of C. P. Diaz; and in 
the high dry region along the Tropic of Cancer, as about 
Moctezuma, a low short-branched form occurs, sometimes 
not over 3 or 4m. high, but with a trunk a meter or more 
in diameter. Though usually designated simply as palma, 
it seems to be sometimes called palma de San Pedro, and 
sometimes palma samandoca. 
Y. vata Brandegee, Proc. Calif. Acad. ii. 2: 208. pl. 11. 
(1889). — Trelease, Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 3: 162. 
Similar in dimensions, habit, foliage, floral details and fruit, to the pre- 
ceding. Inflorescence broadly ovoid, close to the leaves, continuous in 
* The erect panicle shown in Bot. Mag. iii. 47. pl. 7197, was produced 
on a log from about Monterey, and therefore doubtless of this species, 
but is quite unlike anything I have seen in nature, among thousands of 
trees examined. 
