38 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



material on which Mr. Baker's description was based, while 

 the other was secured by Dr. Franceschi, who has since 

 sent vigorous suckers from it to Kew and to the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden, these suckers having formed after the 

 plant bloomed. It is not improbable that the seeds from 

 which these plants were raised were derived from Mr. Pr in- 

 gle's collection of 1891, and the living plant which I have 

 examined shows, as would hardly have been expected from 

 Mr. Baker's description, leaves at first as concave as those 

 of the other species of Hesperaloe, and quite indistinguish- 

 able from those of the plants seen below Peyotes, so that 

 it seems safe to refer all of these specimens of the Mexican 

 table land to //. Davyi, which appears therefore to be 

 rather widely distributed and which differs markedly from 

 the Texan forms in the color of its flowers. 



Many years ago the Tonels introduced into European 

 gardens a plant which seems never to have flowered there, 

 and which was mentioned a number of times under the gar- 

 den name Yucca funif era. No Yucca is yet known which 

 possesses channeled filif erous dorsally striate leaves com- 

 parable to those of Y. funif era as described, and though its 

 apparent complete disappearance from cultivation makes its 

 identity a matter of conjecture only, the foliage description 

 so well fits this Mexican species of Hesperaloe as to leave 

 little doubt in my mind that the latter should bear the name 

 H. funif era . 



HESPERO YUCCA (Engelmann) Baker. 



Perianth broadly campanulate, of subequal distinct thin 

 broadly lanceolate concave segments. Filaments evidently 

 adnate to perianth below, clavate, suberect; anthers didy- 

 mously 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 



