THE YUCCEAE. 121 



The trunks of the species of Yucca, Clistoyucca and 

 Samuela are occasionally used for palisade construction, 

 and in the Carneros pass I have seen houses built almost 

 entirely of material obtained from S. Carnerosana, the 

 walls of palisade-like trunks set on end, and the roof 

 thatched with the leaves. Attempts have been made to use 

 the fiber of Clistoyucca for paper-pulp,* of which a fair 

 grade can be made notwithstanding the gumminess of the 

 tissues ; and the trunks have sometimes been turned into 

 coarse veneers for wrapping bottles, etc., as is commonly 

 done with soft dicotyledonous woods like the cottonwood. 



The group generally seems to possess the saponifying 

 properties of the Agaves, so that the stems and root stocks 

 are not infrequently used as amoles,^ and a considerable 

 quantity of vegetable soap is claimed to be made from Y. 

 baccata, Y. glauca, and, judging from illustrations in ad- 

 vertising matter, Y. radiosa. 



Notwithstanding their stiff-pointed leaves, the species 

 which grow in the south western grazing country are attract- 

 ive to cattle in the flowering season, and the animals often 

 display some dexterity and no little courage in riding down 

 the smaller trees or otherwise getting at their succulent 

 flower -clusters, which are further gathered and carried in to 

 be fed to sheep and other animals in some cases, as, for 

 instance, in the Carneros pass, where I have seen large 

 cart loads of the great panicles of /Samuela Carnerosana 

 being taken to the hamlet for this purpose. In their early 

 stages, too, the inflorescence of Yucca, Hesperoyucca and 

 Samuela is said to be either boiled or roasted and used 

 for human food or even eaten raw.t Like the crowns of 

 '* sotol " (Dasylirion} , the nearly fiberless trunks of the 

 southern Samuela are decorticated or split open so that they 

 can be eaten by stock. 



* Palmer, 1. c. Shinn, Amer. Agriculturist. 1891 : 689. Land of 

 Sunshine. 10*1, and advertisement, 

 f See Palmer, I. c.- 

 J See Palmer, 1. c. The Garden. 24: 104, frpm N. Y. Tribune. 



