8 DEACAENACEAE. 



Order LILIALES. 



Herbs, vines or trees. Leaves with narrow or dilated blades. Flowers 

 perfect, polygamous or dioecious, complete, mostly regular. Perianth of 6 

 members which are usually disting-uishable into calyx and corolla, sometimes 

 partially united. Androecium of 3 or 6 stamens. Gynoecium 3-carpellary, 

 or rarely 2-cari3ellary. Ovary superior or essentially so. Fruit capsular 

 or baccate. 



Family 1. DRACAENACEAE. Yucca Family. 



Shrubby plants or trees, with generally copiously leafy caudices. 

 Leaves alternate : blades narrow, firm or rigid, sometimes filiferous. 

 Flowers in racemes or panicles which terminate scape-like stems. Calyx 

 of 3, usually white or pale sepals. Corolla of 3 petals nearly similar to 

 the sepals. Androecium of 6 stamens. Gynoecium 3-carpellary. Style 

 stout, sometimes obsolete during anthesis. Fruit a primarily loculicidal 

 capsule, sometimes indehiscent or baccate. 



1. YUCCA [Rupp.] L. Trunk commonly leafy throughout. Flowers per- 

 fect, relatively large, in erect racemes or panicles. Sepals and petals several- 

 nerved, deciduous. Ovary elongate, slightly lobed. Ovules numerous. Capsule 

 dehiscent or baccate. Seeds black. — Spr. & sum. 



The wood of the following species is yellowish or brownish, light, soft, and 

 spongy. 



Leaf-blades smooth-edged : ovary sessile : fruits soon drying : 



seeds flat, margined. 1. Y. gloriosa. 



Leaf-blades scabro-serrulate : ovary stipitate : fruits permanently 



pulpy : seeds turgid, not margined. 2. Y. aloifolia. 



1. Y. gloriosa L. Trunk becoming 5 m. tall, usually simple: leaf-blades with 

 a constricted base, 3-5 dm. long, rigidly pointed, smooth throughout: panicles 

 showy, conic, 5-10 dm. long or longer: perianth white, 4-5 cm. long: sepals 

 and petals lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute: fruits leathery, nodding, 

 nearly oblong, constricted at or near the middle, 5-6 cm. long: seeds lustrous, 

 6-7 mm. long. 



The Spamsh-bayonet grows on sand-dunes and in hammocks near the coast in 

 northern Florida. (Gont.) 



2. Y. aloifolia L. Trunk becoming 3 m. tall, commonly branching: leaf- 

 blades 3-9 dm. long, rigidly pointed, more or less constricted between the 

 middle and the dilated base: panicle ample, showy, conic, 3-6 dm. long: 

 perianth white, often tinged with purple, 4-6 cm. long: sepals and petals 

 oblong to elliptic: fruits pulpy, oblong, nodding, 7-9 cm. long. 



The Spanish-dagger grows in hammocks and on dunes near the coast except 

 on the Florida Keys, and occasionally in pinelands somewhat inland. (Cont., W. I.) 



Subclass 2. DICOTYLEDONES. 



Stem consisting of pith, wood and bark. Early leaves opposite. 



Series 1. CHORIPETALAE. 



Petals separate and distinct from each other, or wanting. 



