ENGELMANX NOTES ON THE GENUS YUCCA. 53 



flowered, branches as long or longer than the naked part of the scape. 

 Flowers 2^-3 inches wide, white, tinged with green ; stamens as long as 

 the pistil, at last spreading, the elongated eventually recurved stigmas 

 rather shorter than the ovary. Capsule i£ inches long, more or less con- 

 stricted, thin, smooth and papery in some localities, hard, wrinkled and 

 longer beaked in others; secondary dissepiments mostly very incomplete, 

 not reaching to the centre ; but in a Maryland specimen, and in some 

 cultivated ones, of the ordinary form, so that no specific character can be 

 based on them; seeds 6 mm. diam. — Forms intermediate between a and 

 b are found wild and in cultivation; leaves sometimes more flaccid, with 

 fewer fibres, shorter stamens or stigmas, longer capsules, larger seeds. 



The variety Jlaccida is described from plants in common cultivation 

 about St. Louis, wild specimens I have not seen; it is doubtful whether 

 it is Haworth's plant, which has fila validissima, or of the Refugium, 

 with broad, involute leaves, but the short attenuated stigmas fully agree; 

 the characters indicated in Gard. Chron. I.e., "an irregular, untidy 

 appearance," " leaves conspicuously filiferous," "point not at all pun- 

 gent," •' panicle pubescent," point to our plant. — It is mostly stemless 

 with 40 60 leaves, 20-26 inches long, i-i| inches wide, thin, at first 

 glaucous, flat, sometimes plaited, with a weak not pungent point, and 

 numerous very thin threads, outer ones abruptly recurved or deflexed. 

 Scape 4-6 feet high, bracts as in the last; panicle pubescent, about as 

 long as the naked part of the scape. Flowers 2-3 inches wide, white with 

 greenish; ovary attenuated and angular-impressed towards the base and 

 attenuated upwards towards the short, somewhat unequal, together coni- 

 cal, stigmas. Capsule 2£ inches long, always constricted in the middle, 

 angular and towards the short beak deeply trilobed ; seeds 8-10 mm. long. 

 — r.puberitla Haw. Phil. Mag. 182S, p. 1S6, Refug. 1. c. t. 322 is scarcely 

 distinct, as Mr. Baker 1. c. already suggests for this as well as for T. 

 Jiaccida.— T. glauca, Sims Bot. Mag. t. 2662, Refug. t. 315, with exactly 

 the pistil of our plant, but leaves almost without fibres, also belongs 

 here. 



The two following forms, which may eventually prove distinct from V. 

 plameutosa, I have not been able to identify with any described species. 

 All often grow together on the coast of South Carolina and there ever 

 retain their characters unaltered. 



Var. ? bracteata has 50-100, usually about 70 leaves 20-24 i n - long, i-ii 

 or even \\ inches wide, with a sharp but slender and weak point, and nu- 

 merous thin deciduous threads. Scape 4-6 feet high, stout, greenish 

 bronze, almost covered with large foliaceous bracts, the lower 9-12, upper 

 4-6 inches long, tapering upwards ; panicle contracted, scarcely half as 

 long as the flowerless part of the scape, rough, uneven or somewhat 

 pubescent. Flowers white with greenish, about 3 inches wide; pistil 16 

 lines, stamens half as long, elongated stigmas at last divaricate at tip. 

 Capsule i£-2 inches long with a short cusp, rarely constricted. Seeds S 

 mm. wide. The rarest of the South Carolina forms, and not seen from 

 anywhere else; fl. later than the others, in the second half of June. 



