686 YUCCA 



base. Leaves stiffly erect or spreading, i to 2^ ft. long, i to 2 ins. wide, 

 pointed, but rarely spine-tipped, slightly glaucous green, roughish at the 

 back. From the margins of the leaves, curly thread-like filaments 2 to 3 ins. 

 long break away, and are especially numerous towards the base. Flowers 

 pendulous, yellowish white, 2 to 3 ins. across, produced during July and 

 August in erect, conical, glabrous panicles 3 to 6 ft. high, looser and broader 

 than in either gloriosa or recurvifolia. Fruits 2 ins. long; seeds glossy, 

 5- in. long. 



Native of the south-eastern United States; introduced in the seventeenth 

 century, and said to have first flowered at Oxford in 1675. This is a very 

 hardy and beautiful Yucca, forming low tufts from which the stately panicles 

 spring in profusion. It should be planted in broad masses with, if possible, 

 a dark evergreen background. It flowers in a small state. Easily propagated 

 by division. Allied to flaccida. 



Var VARIEGATA. Leaves margined and striped with yellow or white. 

 Not so hardy and vigorous as the type. 



Y. FLACCIDA, Haworth. 

 (Bot. Reg., t. 1895.) 



A low evergreen shrub, whose stem, like that of Y. filamentosa, does not 

 arise above ground-level, spreading by sucker growths. Leaves i to if ft. 

 long, i to i \ ins. wide; green or glaucous, and bent downwards above the 

 middle, long-pointed with straightish, thread-like fibres separating from the 

 margin, and 2 ins. or more long. Flowers as in Y. filamentosa, but borne on 

 a downy, shorter panicle. Seeds dull, \ in. long, produced in a capsule 2 to 

 3 ins. long. 



Native of the south-eastern United States, with a more inland distribu- 

 tion than Y. filamentosa. It is no doubt closely allied to that species, and 

 between them forms occur which are difficult to assign to one in preference 

 to the other. It differs in the bent back apices of the leaves, downy panicle, 

 larger fruit, and dull seeds. Its garden value is about the same as that of 

 Y. filamentosa, and it is propagated in the same way. 



Var. INTEGRA, Trelease (Y. glauca, Sims, not Nuttallj Bot. Mag., t. 2662), 

 is without fibres on the leaf-margins, the leaves are smaller, the flower-stalks 

 smooth. 



Var. ORCHIOIDES, Trelease (Y. orchioides, Carrure) From the typical 

 Y. flaccida this differs in having stiffer more erect nearly threadless leaves, 

 and a stiffly erect, unbranched inflorescence that is, a raceme, not a panicle. 

 In reducing this Yucca to a variety of Y. flaccida, I follow Prof. Trelease, the 

 last monographer of the genus. It does not appear to exist in a wild state, 

 and he describes it as " a depauperate garden form." 



The Yucca figured in Bot. Mag., t. 6316, as Y. orchioides var. major, 

 Baker, is according to Trelease merely another form of Y. flaccida. He 

 calls it Y. FLACCIDA var. GLAUCESCENS, and describes it as having broader, 

 more glaucous leaves, erect until a later period, an almost tomentose panicle, 

 and narrower petals. It is the form commonly grown in American gardens, 

 and very probably exists under one or other of these names in ours. 



Y. GLAUCA, Nuttall, not Sims. 



(Y. angustifolia, 



An evergreen shrub with a low, often prostrate stem carrying a hemi- 

 spherical head of leaves 3 to 4 ft. across. Leaves narrow linear, i to 2^ ft. 



