THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 35 



above them that cattle can easily get to the bloom. I have 

 been told by cattlemen that when cattle do get to them their 

 milk tastes soapy. What seems to me to be another fallacy 

 is in regarding these pointed leaves as being for the protec- 

 tion of the leaves themselves. Protection against what? 

 What will eat the hard dry leaves anyway? The only thing 

 I know that does eat them to any extent are grasshoppers and 

 a few other insects. Prairie dogs might, but when a prairie 

 dog can readily eat cacti what good would a single spine on the 

 end of a leaf do if they chose to eat it? 



The fruit in our species is a hard 6-celled capsule. Some 

 southwestern species have a soft fruit which is eaten by the 

 Indians of that region. The root has the general character- 

 istics of xerophytic plants. It is large, woody, and porous, 

 capable of absorbing much water in the rainy season. It is 

 covered with a tough skin, preventing the escape, into the dry 

 parched ground, of this stored up moisture. It is in the roots 

 that the saponaceous properties are found. 



I suppose the yucca and its method of pollination has been 

 written about more than any other single plant, and for goo^ 

 reasons too. A plant that has to depend on a single species of 

 insect for fertilization is rather unusual. I believe each spe- 

 cies of yucca has its own species of the yucca moth, Pronuha, 

 to fertilize it. 



The flowers of yucca have very short anthers that cannot 

 reach the stigmas of their respective flowers. This with the 

 fact that the pollen is rather vascid argues against self fertili- 

 zation. In addition those who have made a detailed study of 

 yucca pollination say the pollen can not be intro'duced into the 

 stigmatic tube without artificial aid. The yucca moth, in 

 order to preserve her own progeny, comes to the rescue and 

 saves this plant from passing into the ranks of the exterminated 

 by pollinating it. This intelligent little creature, during the 

 hours of nightfall, for she is noctural in her habits, gathers 

 up a load of pollen, all she can carry, and flies to another plant 



