46 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD, SCIENCE. 



abundant in the plains and valleys about Saltillo ; his statement is 

 almost incredible, and is not supported otherwise, that sometimes 

 it reaches the height of fifty feet, with leaves 1-3 feet long, " seed 

 said to be actively purgative." Prof. Thurber brought from Par- 

 ras leaves and fruit of this species, an account of which, together 

 with a cut, is found in Bartlett's Personal Narrative II, 491 : " a 

 plain covered with Yuccas presents a beautiful appearance when 

 in flower in pyramidal spikes several feet in length .... the 

 trees 25-30 feet high and 2-3 feet in diameter, with ten or a dozen 

 branches" ; he mentions that the fibres of the leaves are used 

 for cordage, the trunks for palings or they are split into slabs 

 for the covering of huts ; the tender top of the stem is roasted 

 and eaten under the name of quiote ; the edible fruits are called 

 latiros. A specimen of the latter I find oval, 2 inches long, with 

 a beak of \ inch ; seeds small for the species. We learn in the 

 above account that the inflorescence is pyramidal ; the cut repre- 

 sents it as sessile or peduncled, and about 3 times as long as wide. 



The Californian forms are in foliage intermediate between the 

 northern and southern extremes ; a leaf collected at Monterey and 

 distinguished by its narrowness (less than f inch wide) probably 

 indicates the northern limit of the species. 



The caulescent fibrous-leaved Yuccas, recently introduced from 

 Mexico in European establishments, of none of which either 

 flower or fruit is known, seem distinguished by narrower and 

 smoother leaves, some with red, others with gray marginal fibres, 

 but they may possibly be only forms of our species ; they are lucca 

 pericidosa, Y.polyphylla, T. circinata and T. scabrifolia, Baker 

 in Gurd. Chron. 1870, p. 10S8, and T. jilifera of the gardens. 



7. Yucca Schottii, nov. spec. : caule humiliore saepius e basi 

 ramoso ; foliis minoribus lanceolato-linearibus rectis rigidis eras- 

 sis sub-pungentibus supra concavis subtus convexis lasvissimis 

 versus basin paulo angustatis, margine fills tenuissimis rectis 

 albidis ornato ; paniculae nuncpuberulae sparsiflora supra folia 

 elatas pedunculo et ramis flexuosis, bracteis exterioribus magnis 

 lanceolatis ; fiorum minorum staminibus demum uncinatis, ovario 

 in stylum brevem stigmate brevi coronatum abeunte ; bacca ovata 

 breviter rostrata, seminibus magnis crassis. — T. brevifolia, Schott 

 in Herb. ; Y.puberula, Torrey in Bot.Mex. Bound. 221, non Haw. 



Upper Santa Cruz River in Southern Arizona, A. Schott, in 

 June and July, 1855. — Trunk 2-5 feet high, crooked, covered with 



