84 IRIDACEAE. 



7a. C. venustus sulphureus Purely. Petals light yellow, with 

 eye in center and a rose-colored blotch at summit. 

 Newhall, Davidson. 



12. HESPERO YUCCA Baker. Spanish Bayonet. 



Subacaulescent with a short stout woody caudex and 

 straight needle-pointed rough-margined flat leaves and 

 ample panicle. Perianth broadly campanulate, of sub- 

 equal distinct thin broadly lanceolate concave segments. 

 Filaments evidently adnate to the perianth below, 

 clavate, suberect; anthers didymously cordate. Ovary 

 oblong-ovoid or obovoid, mostly longer than the short 

 slender style; stigma capitate, long-papillate, minutely 

 perforate. Fruit capsular, incompletely 6-celled , 3-valved 

 through the laciniate false septa. Seeds thin, flat. 



1. H. Whipple! (Torr.) Baker. Simple or sometimes csespitose; 

 leaves ascending, rigid, 3-10 dm. long, about 15 mm. wide, plano- 

 convex, subtriquetrous or keeled on both faces, sometimes falcate, 

 striate, glaucous, keenly but finely denticulate, with very fine slender 

 pungent end spine; panicle 2-5 m. high, long peduncled, glabrous; 

 flowers creamy-white, pendent, fragrant, capsule about 5 cm. long. 

 ( Yucca whipplei Torr.; Y. whipplei graminifolia Wood.) 



Common in the chaparral belt in all our mountains. June-July. 



Yucca arborescens (Torr.) Trelease. (Joshua Tree.) The 

 large yucca of the Mohave Desert. 



13. ASPARAGUS L. Asparagus. 



Stem at first simple, fleshy scaly, at length much 

 branched, the branchlets filiform and mostly clustered 

 in the axils of the scales and usually flattened. Flowers 

 small, solitary or clustered. Perianth segments all alike. 

 Stamens inserted at the base of the segments; anthers in- 

 trorse. Ovules 2 in each cell; style slender; stigmas 3, 

 short, recurved. Berry globose. 



1. A. officinalis L. An escape from cultivation and becoming 

 well established. May. 



Family 14. IRIDACEAE. Iris Family. 



Perennial herbs with narrow equitant 2-ranked leaves 

 and perfect regular or irregular mostly clustered flowers 

 subtended by bracts. Perianth of 6 segments or 6 lobes, 

 its tube adnate to the ovary, the segments or lobes in 2 

 series, convolute in the bud, withering-persistent. Sta- 



