582 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Yucca filamentosa, Linne. 



The Adam's Needle. From Maryland to Florida. An almost 

 stemless species. It would hardly be right, to omit the plants of 

 this genus altogether here, as they furnish a fibre of great strength, 

 similar to that of the Agaves. Moreover, all these plants are 

 decorative, and live in the poorest soil, even in drifting coast-sand. 

 They are also not hurt, as is the case with the Fourcroyas, by slight 

 frosts. Many of the Yuccas are ever-flowering. 



Yucca gloriosa, Linne. 



Carolina and Florida, along the sandy coast-tracts. Stem not tall, 

 but leaves very numerous. The fibre of the leaves furnishes much 

 material for rope, to supply the wants for ships and boats locally. 

 Yucca-ropes are lighter, stronger and more durable than those of 

 hemp [H. M. Brackenridge]. At Edinburgh the plant bore a 

 temperature of F. with impunity [Gorlie] ; yet the Yuccas 

 generally prosper also in tropical countries. 



Yucca Guatemalensis, Baker. 



Mexico and Guatemala. Acquires finally a height of about 20 

 feet. Regarding the specific characteristics of the various Yuccas 

 see particularly Baker's descriptions in the "Journal of the Linn. 

 Soc.," 1880. 



Yucca Treculiana, Carriers. 



From Texas to Mexico. Stem to about 50 feet high, branched 

 only near the summit. Grand in aspect and also most showy on 

 account of its vast number of white flowers of porcelain-lustre. 

 The fruit tastes like that of the Papaw [Lindheimer]. 



Yucca Yucatana, Engelmann. 



Mexico. This species attains a height 'of about 25 feet, branching 

 from the base. Y. canaliculata (Hooker) ranges from Texas to 

 North-Mexico, and has a stem up to 25 feet high, with very long 

 leaves. 



Zalacca secunda, Griffith. 



Assam, as far north as 28. A stemless palm with large feathery 

 leaves, exquisitely adapted for decorative purposes. Before we 

 quit the Asiatic palms, we may learn from Von Martius' great work, 

 how may extra- tropical members of this princely order were already 

 known in 1850, when that masterly publication was concluded. 

 Martius enumerates as belonging to the boreal extra-tropical zone in 



