THE YUCCEAE. 119 



fiaccata. These specimens (nos. 2841, 3912), represent 

 another species of Samuela, which, from near the city of 

 Saltillo extends southwards, on the mountain slopes and in 

 the higher valleys, to some distance below the Tropic of 

 Cancer, and is especially abundant in the higher valleys 

 about Carneros pass, where the Mexican National railroad 

 crosses the mountains south of Saltillo, and about Las 

 Tablas on the Tampico branch of the Mexican Central. 



Like the preceding species, this is a low round-headed 

 tree, very rarely bearing one or two short branches at the 

 apex, and thus in marked contrast with the branched 

 shorter-leaved Y. australis which accompanies it in 

 small numbers about Carneros and elsewhere. The leaves 

 vary considerably in thickness, and the thinner ones are 

 usually a little plicate though they are still thick and rigid. 

 The very thick fibers of the leaves distributed by Mr. 

 Pringle are exceptional. The axis of inflorescence, which, 

 though usually erect, is sometimes arched over by the 

 weight of the enormous panicle, is unusually succulent and 

 devoid of fiber, so that a stalk as thick as one's wrist can 

 be severed by a single cut of a pocket-knife. A striking 

 feature of both species of the genus, but particularly 

 marked in 8. Carnerosana, is the compact depressed bud, 

 as much as 100 mm. in diameter, in which each branch of 

 the panicle ends until blooming is far advanced. Even 

 from a distance, the pure waxen-white fragrant flowers, 

 which remain expanded to an unexpected degree during 

 the daytime, are marked by their cylindrical tube which 

 gives them the appearance of those of Polianthes, though 

 the ovary is free from the perianth, as in other Liliaceae. 

 The fruit of both species, like that of the baccate Yuccas 

 of the southwest, is usually greenish-yellow, though some- 

 times tinged with red or purple, and the soft sweet pulp is 

 pale. 



