830 



YUC 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



YUC 



in pots. They are all very ornamental. This, and the next 

 species, after they have been hardened in the dry borders 

 where the soil is light, and where the situation is warm and 

 sheltered, will make a fine appearance, as also will the others 

 among potted plants in green-house collections. 



2. Yucca Recurvifolia; Drooping-leaved Adam's Needle. 

 Caulescent : leaves linear-lanceolate, furrowed, recurved and 

 drooping, their edges at length somewhat filamentous ; flow- 

 ers of a greenish yellow, with a tinge of purple, having a strong 

 smell, with something like a citron flavour. Stem about three 

 feet high. The three inner segments of the corolla are 

 somewhat of the broadest. Native of the sandy shores of 

 Georgia. 



3. Yucca Aloifolia; Aloe-leaved Adam's Needle. Cau- 

 lescent: leaves linear-lanceolate, even, straight, their edges 

 bordered with fine callous notches. Stem generally simple, 

 rising even in our green-house to the height of fifteen to 

 eighteen feet; for the most part naked, round, three or four 

 inches in diameter, scarred from fallen leaves. The upper 

 part, for the space of a foot or more, is thickly beset with 

 leaves, spreading in every direction ; the lower ones pointing 

 downwards, the upper ones nearly upwards, only a few in 

 the centre being horizontal. The leaves are narrower, and 

 stifier than in the preceding species ; they are straight, and 

 distinguished by their crenate edges, as well as even surface. 

 The panicle also is more dense and cylindrical, from two to 

 three feet high. Flowers white, externally tinged with purple; 

 stigma abrupt, of three shorter, less dilated, and spreading 

 lobes. This species will thrive for many years with very 

 little earth, in pots not more than a foot deep. It rarely 

 flowers, and afterwards the head decays at the top, throwing 

 out lateral shoots, and the plant becomes branched ; but its 



elegant simplicity is destroyed, and no more flowers, at least 

 in our gardens, are ever produced. Native of South Ame- 

 rica. See the first species. 



4. Yucca Draconis : Drooping-leaved Adam's Needle. 

 Caulescent: leaves linear-lanceolate, even, reflexed, crenate; 

 segments of the corolla spreading, somewhat recurved. Ciu- 

 sius says, the Indians use the fibres of the leaves of this 

 species, obtained by maceration and beating, as a fine kind 

 of thread, like flax or silk ; they also make strong cordage of 

 it for tying the rafters of their huts together. Native of 

 South Carolina. 



5. Yucca Filamentosa; Thready Adam's Needle. Stem 

 none; leaves lanceolate, entire, coarsely filamentous at the 

 edges; they are numerous, a foot long, spreading in the 

 form of a rose from the crown of the root ; their points 

 spinous, but short; their surfaces both striated, a little glau- 

 cous, rough to the touch with minute harsh prickles; their 

 edges beset with long recurved threads : flower-stalks solitary, 

 erect, from four to five feet high, round, smooth, leafless, 

 bearing several scattered, oblong, membranous, reddish- 

 brown bractes, such as also accompany the partial stulks : 

 panicle compound, lax, and spreading, of numerous large and 

 handsome, pendulous, cream-coloured, bell-shaped flowers, 

 their segments taper-pointed: filamenta rough or glandular, 

 with very small antberee : stigma with spreading, somewhat 

 recurved, and cloven lobes, like the first species. Found 

 upon the shores of Virginia and Carolina. 



6. Yucca Angustifblia ; Narrow-leaved Dwarf Adam's 

 Needle. Stem none ; leaves linear, elongated, rigid, spar- 

 ingly filamentous at the edges; fruit obovate-cylindrical. 

 Perennial; flowering in July and August. Found by Mr. 

 Thomas Nuttall on the banks of the Missouri. 



Z AC 



ZACINTHA ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia-^Equalis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Common Calix : 

 double ; the outermost short, erect, of several lanceolate 

 leaves, membranous at the edges; innermost larger, simple, 

 furrowed, of eight permanent, linear, acute, converging leaves, 

 at length swelling and very prominent at the base. Corolla: 

 compound, imbricated, uniform; florets equal, perfect, of one 

 petal, ligulate, linear, abrupt, with five teeth. Stamina: 

 filamenta five, capillary, very short ; antherae united into a 

 cylindrical tube. Pistil: germen ovate-oblong; style thread- 

 shaped, the length of the stamina; stigma two, reflexed. 

 Pericarp: none, except the interior calix, which becomes 

 woody, closed, depressed, with a point, having eight rounded 

 protuberant angles, each scale enfolding one of the marginal 

 seeds. Seeds: solitary to each floret; the marginal ones ovate- 

 oblong, incurved, compressed at the sides, gibbous at the 

 back, tapering below, striated, longitudinally channelled, and 

 villous in front; central ones oblong, slightly incurved, quad- 

 rangular, compressed at the back, striated, smooth ; down 

 sessile, somewhat feathery; receptacle naked. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Receptacle: naked. Seeds: of the circum- 

 ference, incurved; of the centre, straight. Down: very 

 short, finely feathery. Outer Calix: membranous; inner, 



with eight protuberances. The following is the only 



known species, 



1. Zacintha Verrucosa; Warty Zacintha. Root annual. 

 Stems somewhat leafy, round, smooth, branched and forked, 

 spreading, from a span to eighteen inches high : leaves run- 



Z AM 



cinate, smooth, the radical ones largest and most numerous; 

 flowers yellow, small. The swelling part of the calix after 

 flowering assumes a purple colour. Native of Italy, Crete, 

 Lemnos, Zante, and Mou-nt Athos. 



Zamia; a genus of the class Dioecia, order Polyandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix : catkin ovate, tessei- 

 atcd scales horizontal, obtuse, thickened towards the end, 

 permanent. Corolla: none. Stamina: filamenta none; 

 antherce numerous, sessile, crowded on the under side of each 

 scale, especially towards the extremity, elliptical, smooth, 

 of two valves and one cell, splitting lengthwise. Female. 

 Calix: catkin ovate, tesselated; scales horizontal, obtuse, 

 more or less peltate, permanent. Corolla : none. Pistil : 

 germina two, oval, sessile, horizontal, indexed, on the under 

 side of each scale, near the extremity ; style very short, rather 

 conical ; stigma obtuse, undivided, pervious. Pericarp : 

 drupa roundish, somewhat angular, of one cell ; nut hard, 

 roundish, or elliptical, of one cell. Observe. This genus, 

 which is not very distinct, is most nearly allied to Cycas, 

 but differs essentially in the female part of the fructification 

 being a catkin, the scales of which bear two germina under- 

 neath; instead of an assemblage of fronds or leafy receptacles, 

 bearing an indeterminate number upon their margins. The 

 herbage is perennial, generally without a stem ; leaves abruptly 

 pinnate, singularly hard, rigid, and often spinous, rarely 

 lobed ; catkins radical, stalks. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Male. Cat/tin: tesselated; scales abrupt. Antherce: oval, 

 sessile at the under side of each scale. Female. Catkin: tessel- 



