1894 



* YUCCA Diaconis. 



Dragon-tree-leaved Adams Needle. 



HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



Nat. ord. LiLiACEiE. 



YUCCA.— Supra, vol. 20.fol. 1690. 



Y. Draconis ; arborescens, foliis laxe capitatis subreflexls ensiformlbus acumi- 

 natis marglne scabris, paniculis ramosis, perianthiis patentissimis. 



Y. Draconis. Haworth, Suppl. p. 33. Romer S^ Schult. Syst. veg. 1 . 716. 

 Elliott Fl. South Carol. 1.401. 



What may be species and what varieties in this noble 

 genus, it is in the present state of botanical information im- 

 possible to say ; there is however but little doubt that the 

 two plants which form the subject of this and the succeeding 

 plate are really distinct. 



This, which I presume is the Y. Draconis of Haworth 

 and Elliott, at least, whatever it may be of others, is one of 

 the most stately of the genus ; it grows along the sea-shore 

 of Carolina, frequently intermixed with Yucca gloriosa, and 

 flowers from May to August ; it sometimes grows as much 

 as 9 or 10 feet high. The great peculiarity by which it 

 appears to be distinguished is the spreading flowers, whose 

 segments, instead of remaining closed in a globose manner 

 as in most others, expand till they diverge from the flower- 

 stalk at nearly a right angle. 



The drawing was made in the garden of the Horticul- 

 tural Society, in July, 1835; and about the same time I 

 received it from the Nursery of the Messrs. Backhouse of 

 York, with whom it had been growing in the open ground 



* See folio 1690. 



