LILY FAMILY 43 



Spanish Bayonet and Bear Gbass (Genus Yucca) 



The yucca leaf "hurteth those that unadvisedly passe by 

 it," wrote an English herbalist in describing these stout 

 plants, whose leaves point outward like green bayonets 

 below the flowers. 



Yucca blossoms, botanists tell us, have become remark- 

 ably specialized for insect visitors, and are dependent on 

 yucca moths for fertile seeds. The moth places her eggs 

 in masses of pollen which she forces into the stigma, and 

 it is by this remarkable pollination that the ovules are 

 fertilized. The larva feeds on a few of the young seeds, 

 eats a hole in the wall of the capsule, lets itself down by 

 a thread to the ground, and goes into the earth. There it 

 forms a cocoon in which the pupa remains until the 

 following year, when the moth emerges at the time yucca 

 flowers open. 



The Spanish bayonet, F. aloifolia, common on dunes 

 by the coast, opens great panicles of creamy bloom in spring 

 and early summer. The common yucca of the interior, Y. 

 filament osa, bear grass, or Adam's needle, has no trunk, 

 but sends up a tall flowering-stalk. It is a smaller plant 

 than the Spanish bayonet, with less rigid leaves, which 

 bear on their margins strong curly threads, locally known 

 as Eve's apron-strings. 



The strong fibers of yuccas are made into cordage; 

 the roots of some are used as soap, and the black seeds of the 

 Spanish bayonet are strung in necklaces. 



Florida species of Nolina, a, genus belonging to this 

 division of the lily family, are relatively slender, unat- 

 tractive plants of dry pinelands. Their many leaves are 

 long and narrow, and are somewhat harsh and rigid. The 

 flowering-stem, two to six feet tall, bears a panicle of tiny, 

 white, six-parted flowers, some of which are sterile. 



Yucca aloifolia. Flowers white, sometimes tinged with 

 purple, about 2 in. long, 6-parted, drooping, many, in panicle 



