34 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



the name, "Spanish bayonet." However, locally I find this 

 name rather unknown. "Soap weed," the name given to it 

 by the Indians, is the name by which it is known here. 



Yuccas are so familiar, being- cultivated in many eastern 

 flower gardens an'd parks, that the general characterstics will 

 not be of a great deal of common interest. Yet, for the sake 

 of the few who have never seen them I shall tell of yuccas as 

 I have begun to know them on the plains of Colorado. 



They belong to the Liliaceae and number, according to 

 some authors, about twenty species. Our species is known as 

 Yucca glauca Nutt. Although some are tree like plants ours 

 is stemless with the leaves growing in dense bunches from a 

 long, tough, thick root. The leaves remain green through- 

 out the year and have a sort of varnish covering to prevent 

 the escape of moisture. They are two to three feet long, very 

 stiff and tipped with a spine which is suppose'd' to protect the 

 plant. They are quite narrow, scarcely an inch wide and 

 have coarse white filaments along the margins which look and 

 feel not unlike the sisal fiber used in the twine of that name. 

 The fiber of some of the species of the Southwest is used by 

 the Indians as cordage. 



The white, bell-shaped flowers growing on a flower stalk, 

 two or three feet high, are truly a glorious spectacle. This 

 scape arises from the center of the bunch of leaves, and has 

 the flowers arranged on it in rows, drooping like tiny bells 

 with clapper-like stigmas ready to tinkle in the breeze. Their 

 creamy whiteness standing out against the unvaried vista of 

 the plains always compels one to stop and admire. The 

 flowers are fleshy, an'd so hard to dry that I have never suc- 

 ceeded in getting a good specimen for my hei^barium. It is 

 said that cattle grazing on the plains are fond of them, hence, 

 its stockade of pointed leaves is supposed to prevent this, but, 

 I seriously question this supposition. The leaves seldom ex- 

 tend more than three feet from the root and consild'erably less 

 than at a right angle to it. The racemes are so far 



