LILIACE^ 



117 



1. Fruit with thick succulent flesh. 



* Segments of the flower slightly united at the base. 



1. Yucca aloifolia, L. Spanish Bayonet. 



Leaves 18'-32' long, l^-^i' wide, erect, rigid, conspicuously narrowed above the 

 light green base, widest above the middle, slightly concave on the upper surface, 

 smooth, dark rich green, with stiff dark red-brown spines and horny finely and ir- 

 regularly serrate margins; long-persistent. Flowers from June until August on 

 stout pedicels, in nearly sessile glabrous or slightly pubescent panicles 18'-24' long; 

 perianth V-l\' in length and 3' or 4' across when fully expanded, the segments 

 ovate, thick and tumid toward the base, those of the outer rank rounded and often 



marked with purple at the apex, the inner acuminate and short-pointed; stamens as 

 long or sometimes a little longer than the light green ovary raised on a short stout 

 stipe. Fruit ripening from August to October, elongated, elliptical, hexagonal, 

 3'-4' long, l^'-l^' thick, light green when fully grown, and in ripening turning 

 dark purple, the outer and inner coats forming a thick succulent mass of bitter- 

 sweet juicy flesh, finally becoming black and drying on its stalk; seeds \'-y broad, 

 about -^q' thick, with thin narrow ring-like borders to the rim. 



A tree, occasionally 25 high, usually much smaller, with an erect or more or less 

 inclining simple or branched trunk slightly swollen at the base, and rarely more 

 than 6' in diameter; sometimes with numerous clustered stems. Bark near the 

 base of the trunk thick, rough, dark brown, marked above by scars left by falling 

 leaves. 



Distribution. Sand dunes of the coast from North Carolina to eastern Louisi- 

 ana ; west of the Appalachicola River attaining its largest size and sometimes 

 ranging inland through Pine forests for thirty or forty miles. 



A common garden plant in all countries with a temperate climate, and long natu- 

 ralized in some of the West Indian islands and on the Gulf coast of Mexico. Forms 

 with leaves variously striped with white, yellow, and red are frequent in cultivation. 



2. Yucca Treculeana, Carr. Spanish Bayonet. Spanish Dagger. 



Leaves 2^-4 long, 2'-3^' wide, slightly or not at all contracted above the 

 dark red lustrous base, concave, stiff, rigid, dark blue-green, rough on the lower sur- 



