G CQNTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN- BOTANY NO. IS 



in an ovate panicle on a peduncle net as long as the leaves. Plants 

 iiEwhat stoloniferous and in young plants leaves little raised above the 





ground. Yucca baccata is very much stcdoniferous, often covering many 

 square rods, and with the trunks rarely a foot long, mostly none at all, 

 and wilh. a., rosette of coarse, bluish-white leaves 2 feet long and shaped 

 about, as in Mohavensis and with the same coarse threads on the margins. 

 The flowers farm-' a rather diffuse panicle composed of distinct racemes 

 and' mostly, without peduncle. Flowers pear-shaped, bluish-white, moVlv 

 3 inches long and conspicuously tapering at base, the cuter segments with 

 a bluish and wide stripe along the middle. Fruit pulpy and about 3-4 

 inche? long, about as in Mohavensis tut more inclined to be constricted in- 

 the nnddle, much'infested by insects and seldom maturing. As a rule the 

 flcAvers are rather scattered, rarely half as many as in Mohavensis. 

 >.Iohavensis abounds from Bonelli's Ferry at the mouth of the Virgin river 

 an<J up the Grand Wash to Pagumpa and westw^ard to the Sierras in the 

 nilddle of Owen's valley and southward to Lower California. Nowhere 

 on the WTStern slope except near the Palomar and^ San Diego. It goes a 

 Ihth farther down in the the Tropical life zone than Y. brevifolia but 

 cilways grows with it Yucca baccata does net reach the Sierras at any 

 plaae.. Its westennost locality seems to be the southern side of the 

 Providence mountains, where it occurs along with Mohavensis and clearly 

 hybridizes with it there. Then it extends eastward^ to the La Sal moun- 

 tains. Utah, where it extends up into the Middle Temperate, thence 

 southeastward to the Rio Grande valley and southward throughout Arizona 

 an d^ iiito- Mexico.- Mostly: Tropical. Trelease in Kis work on Yucca p. 

 185 and following speaks of this species as abounding at ''San Bernar- 

 dina and southweard" where it does not exist- All hfs reference to this 

 species is Yucca ^Mohavensis. Also his figure of Y. baccata is Y. Mohav- 

 ensis. In the Texan-Arizona region Y. baccata has yet to be separated 

 from^ arboescent forms referred to it' hitherto. 



It might be presumed that tins rather extensive critique of Jepson's 

 botany, and the multitude of trivial errors found in it would lead one to 

 the. opinion that the book is a failure. This sugestion T want to emphat- 

 ically deny. J 



^ Watson. The 

 botany will be a hand-book for years to come, and deserves it. There are 

 parts_of the book that show too-much haste, and' other parts that follow 

 certain botanists too closely but in the main the work is good. 



JepsonV Manual. On page 432 Jepson states that Arabis platysperma 

 grows in the San Gabriel and San Jacinto mountains. F seriously doubt 

 tjiis statement. So far as I can discover all the material" ih those regions 

 ffi.Iow altitude stuff that belongs with A. dispar- 



Itishould.be jioted that the young pods of botL. AraBis Dulchra and 



