5 12 



LILIACEAE. 



VOL. I. 



15. YUCCA L. Sp. PL 319. 1753. 



Large plants, with a short sometimes subterranean caudex, or tall woody and leafy stem, 

 or bracted scape, the leaves linear or lanceolate, usually rigid and sharp-pointed, bearing 

 long marginal thread-like fibers in our species. Flowers large, bracted, nodding in a ter- 

 minal raceme or panicle. Perianth campanulate, or nearly globular, white in our species, 

 of 6 ovate, or ovate-lanceolate separate or slightly united segments. Stamens hypogynous, 

 shorter than the perianth; filaments thickened above, often papillose; anthers small, versa- 

 tile. Ovary sessile, 3-celled; or imperfectly 6-celled; ovules numerous; style columnar, 

 short, with 3 stigmatic lobes. Fruit a loculicidal or septicidal capsule, or fleshy, or spongy 

 and indehiscent. Seeds numerous, flattened, horizontal. [The Haytien name.] 



About 16 species, natives of North and Central America. Type species: Yucca aloifolia L. 



i. Y. baccata. 



Fruit fleshy, indehiscent, drooping. 

 Fruit an erect capsule. 



Leaves 2" -6" wide ; scape short, bearing a long raceme. 



Leaves io"-2' wide; scape 2-io high, bearing a large panicle. 



2. Y. glauca. 



3. Y. filamentosa. 



i. Yucca baccata Torr. Spanish Bayonet 

 or Dagger. Fig. 1277. 



Yucca baccata Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. Surv. 221. 

 1859- 



Caudex very short, or sometimes 2-8 tall, 

 covered with the reflexed dead leaves. Leaves 

 i2-3 long, i '-2' wide with a much wider base, 

 acuminate, with a stout brown point, concave, the 

 marginal fibers 2'-$' long ; panicle peduncled ; 

 pedicels stout, 8"-2o" long ; flowers 4'-$' broad ; 

 perianth-segments 2\'-^\' long, 8"-i2" wide ; style 

 slender, as long as the ovary, or shorter; fruit 

 oval, dark purple, fleshy, indehiscent, edible, 

 drooping, 2'-3' long, il'-2 r in diameter, with a 

 6-grooved beak of one-half its length or less ; 

 seeds 3"-8" long, i"-i$" thick. 



Western Kansas (?), southern Colorado to Texas, 

 California and Mexico. Hosh-kawn. April-June. 

 Fruit ripe Sept.-Oct. 



2. Yucca glauca Nutt. Bear-grass. Soap- 

 weed. Fig. 1278. 



Yucca glauca Nutt. Fraser's Cat. 1813. 



Yucca angnstifolia Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 227. 1814. 



Caudex very short, the leaves all basal, narrowly 

 linear, smooth, very stiff, sharp-pointed, i-3 long, 

 3"-6" wide, with a broader base, concave, at least 

 when dry, the marginal fibers filiform, usually nu- 

 merous; scape short; flowers greenish-white, i$'- 

 3' broad, racemose or in a little-branched panicle 

 i-6 long; perianth-segments ovate, i'-ii' long; 

 style short, green ; stigmas shorter than the ovary ; 

 pedicels stout, erect and i'-ij' long in fruit; capsule 

 oblong, 2'-3' long, about i' thick, 6-sided; seeds 

 very flat, about \' broad. 



In dry soil, Iowa and South Dakota to Montana, 

 south to Missouri, Texas and Arizona. Adam's-needle. 

 Palmillo. May-June. 



Yucca arkansana Trelease, with grass-like flexible 

 leaves, growing from Arkansas to Texas, may occur in 

 southern Missouri. 



