MELANTHACEJE. (COLCHICUM FAMILY.) 485 
10. YUCCA, L. Spanisu BAYONET. 
Perianth cup-shaped, corolla-like, 6-leaved. Sepals and petals nearly alike, 
late-deciduous. Stamens 6, with thick granular club-shaped filaments: anthers 
small, oval. Ovary 3-celled, 3-sided, grooved at the angles. Stigmas 3, nearly 
sessile, oblong, concave, 2-cleft, Ovules numerous, in two rows, the rows sep- 
arated by a false partition. Capsule oblong, 6-celled, pulpy and indehiscent, or 
dry and loculicidally 3-valved at the apex. Seeds numerous, flat, horizontal, 
smooth and black.— Plants with thick palm-like leafy stems (caudex), numer- 
ous rigid and spine-pointed leaves, and white showy panicled flowers. 
* Stem short: capsule dry, 3-valved. 
1. Y. filamentosa, L. (Brar-Grass.) Stem short and leafy; leaves 
rather rigid, spreading or recurved, varying from linear to broad-lanceolate, 
green or glaucous, with thread-like -filaments on the margins ; scape elongated, 
branching and pubescent above; leaves of the perianth ovate-lanceolate, white 
tinged with yellow or purple; capsule with 3 rounded angles, loculicidal at the 
apex, and at length separating at the inflexed sutures into three 2-celled carpels. 
(Y. puberula and Y. glaucescens, Haw.) — Light or sandy soil, Florida to North 
Carolina, and westward. June.—Stem rarely more than a foot above the 
ground. Leaves 19-29 long. Scape p high. 
* * Stem tall: capsule pulpy, G-angled, indehiscent. a d 
2. Y. gloriosa, L. Stem mostly simple, leafy at the summit ; Tira 
linear-lanceolate, rigid, smooth on the margins; panicle large, smooth, pyrami- 
dal, short-peduncled ; flowers white, single or clustered ; leaves of the perianth 
lanceolate, acute. — Drifting sands along the coast, Florida to North Carolina, 
and westward. May and June. — Stem 2°-4° high. Leaves 1°-1}° long. 
Panicle 2? - 3° long. 
3. Y. aloifolia, L. Stem mostly branching, leafy above; leaves linear- 
lanceolate, very rigid, strongly spine-pointed, very rough on the margins, the 
lower ones reflexed ; panicle short, smooth, densely flowered, nearly sessile ; divis- 
ions of the perianth ovate-lanceolate, white tinged with purple. (Y. Draconis, 
L. Y. serrulata, Haw.) — Sands along the coast, Florida to North Carolina. 
May and June. — Stem 49 - 8? high. Leaves and panicle 19 — 13? long. 
- X. recurvifolia, Salisb. Leaves linear-lanceolate, recurved, with. the 
margins sometimes filamentose; interior leaves of the perianth wider than the 
exterior. — On the sea-coast of Georgia, Elliott. July and Aug. — Stem about 
3? high. Flowers white, tinged occasionally with green and purple. (*) 
Order 152. MELANTHACE/E. (Cozemcvw FAMILY.) 
Perennial herbs, with parallel-nerved | de, and regular flowers. 
Perianth of 6 nearly equal divisions, free from or coherent with. the base 
of the 3-celled ovary. Stamens 6 (in Pleea 9-12), inserted on the base of — 
M anthers extrorse cum in Tofieldia and TR = Styles : 
B s 4* p emo | 
