122 THE PLANT WORLD 



petrification — so that the old trunk was no more than a sepulchre of 

 ancestral dust — and the gnarled monster, witness of antedelu\dan catas- 

 trophes, remnant of geologic ages, slowly died through the centuries, 

 eating out its own heart, becoming constantly more of an anachronism 

 like a veritable Tithonous of the plant world. Its parents were per- 

 haps companions of the Pterodactyl and Iguanodon, and one would not 

 have been astonished to see some grotesque, reptilian bird perched 

 among the forbidding foliage, nor do we wonder that the idea arose in 

 olden times that this was the fabulous dragon, guardian of the apples 

 of the Hesperides, for its fruit was golden yellow, and hardy indeed 

 must have been the hero who could gain access to it against the innum- 

 erable defending sword-like fingers of the many arms. 



Dracaena Draco, the dragon tree, for so this wonder is called, is 

 now found only in the Canaries, with a rare excei)tion in Madeira. 

 Paradoxical as it may seem, it is one of the lily family, and not dis- 

 tantly related to the asparagus of our gardens. A French writer graph- 

 ically enlarges on the incongruity of this kinship: " O, ancient witness 

 of primitive ages; high herbs cover thy feet; creepers encircle thy trunk 

 and irreverently enlace thy branches; parasites grow upon thy very 

 bosom, living upon thy substance; one has seen under thy shade happy 

 generations, of monks useless or harmful, of warriors bloody; and dur- 

 ing a hundred centuries men have rested in the shade of thy foliage; 

 the conquering Alonzo de Lugo commanded mass to be said upon an 

 altar which thou wert compelled to bear — thou who hadst witnessed the 

 mysterious rites of Egypt, Phoenician idolatries, Greek mythologies 

 Moorish ablutions! Eh, well! old tree, if not the first born, the most 

 venerable of created beings, thou art dishonored without appeal, for it 

 is in the name of science. O, fabulous dragon! thou who hast been 

 deified, thou art now only an asparagus! an asparagus larger than 

 others — behold that is all ! Thou art no more a tree, the king of the 

 forests; no, thou art not even ligneous — fie! Thou art only a simple 

 vegetable in the family of the asparagus, and this downfall is irremedi- 

 able! " 



The enthusiastic Frenchman allowed himself to be somewhat car- 

 ried away by his feelings, for the relationship is not so close that the 

 Dragon need be discredited by the plebeian appearance of its humble 

 relative. Dracaena and Asparagus are members of distinct sub-families 

 of the Liliaceae. The Dragon tree is more closely allied with the Yucca 

 of our gardens and the curious Dasylirlon of Texas and Mexico, which 

 is also often seen in cultivation. 



The genus is old. Fossil remains indicate its existence in central 

 Europe and southern Africa during the Tertiary period. It now con- 

 tains about thirty-six species, all found in the warmer parts of the Old 



