

LILIACEAE. 



2. Aletris aurea Walt. Yellow Colic- 



root. (Fig. 1024.) 



Aletris aurea Walt. Fl. Car. 121. 1788. 



Basal leaves shorter than those of the preced- 

 ing species, iK / -3 / long, 3 // -S // wide, acumi- 

 nate, narrowed into short petioles. Scape i- 

 2^ tall, bearing a few subulate bract-like 

 leaves; raceme S'-2 long, usually loose; pedi- 

 cels i /x long or less, shorter than the bracts; 

 perianth bell-shaped or ovoid-globose, bright 

 yellow, 2 // -3 // long, i^ // -2 // in diameter, its 

 lobes oval; style short; capsule ovoid, about as 

 long as the perianth. 



Southern New Jersey (according to Gray and to 

 Rusby); Virginia to Florida and Texas. June-Aug. 



14. YUCCA L. Sp. PI. 319- 1753- 



Large plants, with a short sometimes subterranean caudex, or tall woody and leafy stem, 

 or bracted scape, the leaves linear or lanceolate, usually rigid and sharp-pointed, bearing 

 long marginal thread-like fibres in our species. Flowers large, bracted, nodding in a ter- 

 minal raceme or panicle. Perianth campanulate, or nearly globular, white in our species, 

 of 6 ovate, or ovate-lanceolate separate or slightly united segments. Stamens hypogynous, 

 shorter than the perianth; filaments thickened above, often papillose; anthers small, versa- 

 tile. Ovary sessile, 3-celled; or imperfectly 6-celled; ovules numerous; style columnar, 

 short, with 3 stigmatic lobes. Fruit a loculicidal or septicidal capsule, or fleshy, or spongy 

 and indehiscent. Seeds numerous, flattened, horizontal. [The Haytien name.] 



About 1 6 species, natives of North and Central America. 



Fruit fleshy, indehiscent, drooping. i. J*. baccata. 

 Fruit an erect capsule. 



Leaves 2"-$ wide; scape short, bearing a long raceme. 2. J". glatica. 



Leaves io"-2' wide; scape 2-io high, bearing a large panicle. 3. Y. ftlamcn tosa. 



i. Yucca baccata Torr. Spanish 

 Bayonet. (Fig. 1025.) 



Yucca baccata Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. Surv. 221. 

 1859- 



Caudex very short, or sometimes 2-S tall, 

 covered with the reflexed dead leaves. Leaves 

 I K-3 long. i '-2' wide with a much wider 

 base, acuminate, with a stout brown point, 

 concave, the marginal fibres 2 / ~5 / long; pan- 

 icle peduncled; pedicels stout, 8"-2o" long; 

 flowers 4 / -5 / broad; perianth-segments 2^'- 

 3#' long, 8"-i2" wide; style slender, as long 

 as the ovary, or shorter; fruit oval, dark pur- 

 ple, fleshy, indehiscent, edible, drooping 2'- 

 3 / long, i %'-2' in diameter, with a 6-grooved 

 beak of one-half its length or less; seeds 3" 8" 

 long, \"-\W thick. 



Western Kansas ( ? ) southern Colorado to Texas, 

 California and Mexico. April-June. Fruit rice 

 Sept. -Oct. 



:ed- 



