LILIACEZ. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 7 
rank are rounded and often marked with dark purple at the apex, and the inner are acuminate and 
short-pointed. The stamens are usually about as long as or sometimes a little longer than the light 
green ovary, which is raised on a short stout stipe,’ and is crowned by the sessile stigmatic lobes. The 
fruit, which is often produced abundantly without the aid of the Yucca Moth, ripens from August to 
October ; it is elongated, elliptical, hexagonal by the spreading of the septal glands, the sides alternate 
with the carpels being sharply depressed, rounded at the base, and gradually narrowed at the apex, 
which is tipped with the stigmatic lobes; it has a thick outer coat and a thin firm white membranaceous 
endocarp, and is from three to four inches long and from an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half 
thick ; when fully grown it is light green and rather lustrous, and in ripening turns a deep dark rich 
purple throughout, the outer and inner coats of the pericarp forming a thick imdehiscent succulent 
homogeneous tender mass of bitter-sweet juicy flesh, which finally turns black and dries up on the 
panicle. The seed is from one quarter to one third of an inch broad and about one sixteenth of an 
inch thick, with thin narrow wing-like borders to the rim? 
Fucca aloifolia grows only in the neighborhood of the coast and on its islands, and is distributed 
In the 
Atlantic states it usually grows close to the sea, generally on the sand-dunes of beaches and the sandy 
borders of brackish swamps ; in Florida it is abundant on the sand-dunes of the coast, and occasionally 
occurs on rich hummocks, whither it may have been carried by the Indians, who used the fibres of its 
leaves ; and west of the Appalachicola River, where it attains its largest size, Yucca aloifolia is 
common on the islands and beaches of the coast, and extends inland for thirty or forty miles, growing 
with stunted Oaks in the dry sandy soil of the Pine forest. 
The wood of Yucca aloifolia has not been examined. 
from North Carolina southward to southern Florida, and along the Gulf to eastern Louisiana. 
The succulent fruits, which have a sweet and rather pleasant flavor, are eagerly devoured by 
birds, and are occasionally eaten by whites and negroes in the southern states, where they are often 
called bananas. 
Yucca aloifolia was one of the first Yuccas known to Europeans, and one form of it appears to 
have been described by Caspar Bauhin in 1623.° After the settlement of the southern coast of North 
America by Europeans it must soon have been carried to the West Indies, as it was thoroughly 
naturalized in Jamaica and other islands more than a century ago, and to the Mexican Gulf coast, 
where it is also naturalized and is believed by many authors to be indigenous. 
Yucca aloifolia is now a familiar object in the gardens of all temperate countries, and accidental 
forms with leaves variously striped with green, white, and yellow are common in cultivation.’ 
1 Trelease, Rep. Missouri Bot. Gard. iv. 184. 
2 A form of this plant which is said to bear longer, less crowded, 
soft, and somewhat curved and pendulous leaves, and is known 
only in European gardens, is : — 
Yucca aloifolia, var. B Draconis, Engelmann, Trans. St. Louis 
Acad. iii. 35 (1873). 
Yucca Draconis, Linneus, Spec. 319 (1753). — Miller, Dict. ed. 
8, No. 3. — Aiton, Hort. Kew. i. 465. — Gertner, Fruct. ii. 34, t. 
85, f. 9.— Persoon, Syn. i. 378. — Desfontaines, Hist. Ard. i. 
18. — Du Mont de Courset, Bot. Cult. ed. 2, ii. 201. — Elliott, Sk. 
i. 401. — Haworth, Suppl. Pl. Succ. 32. — Sprengel, Syst. ii. 41. — 
Roemer & Schultes, Syst. vii. pt. i. 716.— Bot. Reg. xxii. t. 
1894. — Dietrich, Syn. i. 1093. — Kunth, Enum. iv. 270. — Spach, 
Hist. Vég. xii. 284. — Baker, Gard. Chron. 1870, 828. 
Yucca Haruckeriana, Crantz, Duab. Drac. Arbor. 29 (1768). 
Another form known only in gardens, with soft although not 
pendulous leaves, with green and less ridged points, is : — 
Var. y conspicua, Engelmann, 1. c. (1873). 
Yucca conspicua, Haworth, J. c. 32 (1819). — Sprengel, l. c. — 
Roemer & Schultes, J. c. 715. — Kunth, J. ¢. 
8 Draconi arbori affinis Americana, Pinaz, 506. 
Aloe Americana jucce foliis arborescens, Kigglaer, Cat. Hort. 
Beaum. 5. — K. Commelin, Prel. Bot. 64, t. 14. 
dloé Yucce foliis, caulescens, Hermann, Parad. Bat. Prodr. 
306. — Plukenet, Phyt. t. 256, f. 4; Alm. Bot. 19. 
Aloé ; Americana ; folio Yucce ; arborescens, Boerhaave, Ind. Alt. 
Hort. Lugd. Bat. pt. 11. 131. 
Yucca arborescens, foliis rigidioribus rectis serratis, Dillenius, Hort. 
Eth. 435, t. 323, £. 416. 
Yucca Draconis folio serrato reflexo, Dillenius, 1. c. 437, t. 324, 
f. 417 (excl. syn. Commelin). 
Yucca foliorum margine crenulato, Linnzus, Hort. Cliff. 130 (excl. 
syn. Sloane, ? J. Bauhin and ? Clusius) ; Hort. Ups. 88. 
Yucca foliis crenulatis, Linneus, Virid. Cliff. 29. 
Cordyline foliis pungentibus crenulatis, Royen, Fl. Leyd. Prodr. 221. 
4 Yucca tricolor, Yucca lineata lutea, Yucca quadricolor, Hort. — 
Yucca serrata, y argenteo-marginata, and 6 roseo-marginata, Regel, 
Gartenflora, viii. 55 (1859). 
In gardens Yucca aloifolia sometimes appears as Yucca pur- 
purea and as Yucca Atkinsi. 
