104 



I.ILIACK.K. Vucca. 



H- Fruit baccate: seeds thick, undulate, with ru)niuate albumen: leaves fila- 



incntose. 



1. Y. baccata, Torr, Stulonirerous : ciuulex usually short, covercil with tho 

 refracted dead leaves, or none : leaves narrowly lanceolate, contracteil above the 

 dilated base, 1 to 3 feet long and an inch or two wide, thick, very rigid and usually 

 scabrous, concave and often deeply so, terminating in a very stout brownish spine, 

 the margin at length bearing coarse recurved threads : i)anicle pedunculate, pyram- 

 idal, mostly smooth : lower bracts ovate-lanceolate, pungent, somewhat coriaceous, 

 Avhitish within, the upper narrower : llowers usually large, the segments of the peri- 

 anth 1 to 3 inches long and 6 to 12 lines wide: stamens G to 9 lines long: ovary 

 oblong, prismatic, an inch or two long including the slender more or less elongated 

 style : fruit pendulous, baccate, dark puri)le, ovate to cylindrical, 2 to 5 inches long, 

 beaked : seeds often very large (4 to S lines broad) and thick. — Lot. Mex. JJound. 

 221 ; Kngelm. Hot. King K.\p. 4'JG, and 1. c. 44; 111. Ilort. 3 ser. t. 115. Y. jila- 

 vieidosa?, Wood, Troc. Philad. Acad. 18G8, 167. 



From Monterey to San Diego, ranging to S. Utah, W. Texas and Northern Mexico. A varia- 

 Lle species, tlie more northern form often acanlescent, but soutlavanl heeoming 8 to 10 feet liigh 

 or more. The Iruit is sweet and edible ; flowering from March to June, according to latitude. 



H- H- Fruit becoming dry and sponi/y : seeds ihickish, smooth, with entire albu- 

 men: leaves serrulate. 



2. Y. brevifolia, Engelm. Caudex erect, tall (15 to 30 feet high, often a foot 

 or two in diameter), with rough cracked bark, branched above : leaves short (usually 

 6 to 8 inches long and 3 to 6 lines wide), very rough and rigid, linear from a broad 

 base, attenuate into a sharp stout spine, somewhat convex above, the margin very 

 rough with small stout teeth : llowers fetid, erect, crowded in a sessile ovate panicle : 

 bracts ovate to lanceolate, white and scarious-margined, nearly ecpialling the ilowers : 

 pedicels very short : segments of the narrowly campanulate i)erianth greenish-white, 

 narrowly lanceolate, l.V to 2.V inches long : stamens 4 or 5 lines long, about half the 

 length of the oblong-i)yramidal ovary : stigmas short and nearly sessile : fruit erect, 

 ovate, 2 or 3 inches long (U inches thick or more), slightly G-angled, somewhat 

 ])ointed, with thick spmigy pericarp. — liot. King K.xp. 4'JG, and 1. c. 47 iV 213. 

 y. Draconis, var. (?) arburtsctns, Torr. Pacif. li. IJep. iv. 147. 



In the desert region of San Bernardino County, and eastward to Southern Utali and Norlli- 

 we.stern Arizona, often abundant and even fornung "straggling forests." 



* * Perianth rotate-spreadinff : filaments acutish, smooth, erect ; anthers dldi/- 

 mons, transverse: stir/ma hairy-jiapillose, peltate : fruit a loculicidal caj/siib- : 

 seeds thin, smooth, with entire albumen: acaulescent, with serrulate leaves 

 and tall bracteate scape. — IIe.spekuyucca, Engelm. 



3. Y. Whipplei, Torr. Stoloniferous ; caudex none or very short : leaves 

 glaucous-green, rigid, linear-subulate from a broad base, 10 to 20 inches long and 4 

 to 7 lines wide, attenuate to a sharp triangular brown spine, nearly Hat, deeply con- 

 cave near the apex; margin finely serrulate : scajic 4 to 12 feet high, beset with 

 broad sheathing and imbricated foliaceous pungent bracts G to 9 inches long : panicle 

 narrow and si)ike-like, dense;, snuxjth ; lower bracts large and foliaceous, the upper 

 small and scarions, much shoiter than the slend(!r ))edicels which are (tonspiciiously 

 jointed at or above tho middle {\ to 2 inches long) : segnient.s of the grei'nish-white 

 pendulous perianth spreading horizontally, 1 to 2 incluis long, oblong-lanceolate or 

 somewhat spatulate : stamens spreading, 4 to 7 lines long, eipialling or longer than 

 the oblong deeply lobed ovary : style short, conical, bearing the green capitatei)eltate 

 slightly 3-lobed stigma : capsule globose-cjbovate, an inch long or nu)re ; valves re- 

 maining entire after dehiscenee and seeds escaping at either end of the false ])arti- 

 tion. — r.ot. Mex. Hound. 222; Kngelm. T.ot. King Kxp. 497, and 1. c. 54 ; P.aker, 

 Card. Chronicle, n. ser. vi. 190, li-. 42. )'. alnihdia, Torr. I'acif. I!, b'ep. iv. 147. 



