112 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



and short-pointed; stamens as long or sometimes a little longer than the light green ovary 

 raised on a short stout stipe. Fruit ripening from August to October, elongated, ellipsoidal, 

 hexagonal, 3'-4' long, 1\'-\%' thick, light green when fully grown, and in ripening turning 

 dark purple, the outer and inner coats forming a thick succulent mass of bitter-sweet juicy 

 flesh, finally becoming black and drying on its stalk; seeds \'-\' wide, about iV thick, 

 with a thin narrow ring-like border to the rim. 



A tree, occasionally 25 high, usually much smaller, with an erect or more or less inclining 

 simple or branched trunk slightly swollen at base, and rarely more than 6' in diameter; 

 sometimes with numerous clustered stems. Bark near the base of the trunk thick, rough, 

 dark brown, marked above by scars left by falling leaves. 



Distribution. Sand dunes of the coast from North Carolina to eastern Louisiana; west 

 of the Apalachicola River attaining its largest size and sometimes ranging inland through 

 Pine-forests for thirty or forty miles; and in Yucatan (var. yucatana Trel.). 



A common garden plant in all countries with a temperate climate, and long naturalized 

 in the southern states far beyond the limits of its natural range, in some of the West Indian 

 islands and on the Gulf coast of Mexico. Forms with leaves variously striped with white, 

 yellow, and red or with recurving leaves are frequent in cultivation. 



2. Yucca Treculeana Carr. Spanish Bayonet. Spanish Dagger. 



Leaves 2^-4 long, 2'-3j' wide, slightly or not at all contracted above the dark red 

 lustrous base, concave, stiff, rigid, dark blue-green, rough on the lower surface, nearly 

 smooth on the upper, with a short stout dark red-brown tip, and dark brown margins 

 roughened by minute deciduous teeth and ultimately separating into slender dark fibres; 



Fig. 107 



persistent for many years, the dead leaves hanging closely appressed against the trunk 

 below the terminal crown of closely imbricated living leaves. Flowers in March and April 

 on slender pedicels, in dense many-flowered glabrous or puberulous panicles 2-4 long and 

 raised on short stout stalks; perianth l'-2' long, 2'-4' in diameter when fully expanded, 

 with narrow elongated ovate-lanceolate to ovate segments, \' wide, acute, thin and delicate, 

 furnished at apex with a conspicuous tuft of short pale hairs; filaments slightly papillose, 

 about as long as the prismatic ovary gradually narrowed above and crowned by the deeply 

 divided stigmatic lobes. Fruit ripening in the summer, 3'-4' long, about 1' thick, dark 

 reddish brown or ultimately black, with thin succulent sweetish flesh; seeds about |' 

 wide, nearly iV thick, with a narrow border to the rim. 



A tree, occasionally 25-30 high, with a trunk sometimes 2 in diameter and numerous 

 stout wide-spreading branches; usually smaller and often forming broad low thickets 4- 



