LILIACEJE 



115 



yellow-green, with a long rigid sharp light red tip, and thick entire red-brown margins 

 finally separating into short thin brittle threads. Flowers from July to September in erect 

 stalked tomentose panicles; perianth I'-l-f long, the broad oval or oblong-obovate thin 

 segments pubescent on the outer surface toward the base and furnished at the apex with 

 conspicuous clusters of white tomentum; stamens about two thirds as long as the ovary, 

 with filaments pilose at the base, and only slightly enlarged at the apex. Fruit ripening in 

 October and November, obscurely angled, 3^'-4' long, about lj' thick, often narrowed 

 above the middle, with a stout thick point, and thin succulent flesh; seeds \' wide, about 

 \' thick, with a thin conspicuous marginal rim. 



A tree, in Arizona rarely 18-20 high, with a trunk often crooked or slightly inclining 

 and simple or furnished with 2 or 3 short erect branches, covered below with dark brown 

 scaly bark, roughened for many years by persistent scars of fallen leaves, and clothed above 

 by the pendant dead leaves of many seasons. 



Distribution. Dry slopes of the mountain ranges, of Arizona near the Mexican boundary 

 usually at altitudes between 5000 and 6000, and southward into Sonora. 



6. Yucca Faxoniana Sarg. Spanish Dagger. 



Leaves 2^-4 long, 2^'-3' wide, abruptly contracted above the conspicuously thickened 

 lustrous base, widest above the middle, flat on the upper surface, thickened and rounded 

 on the lower surface toward the base, rigid, smooth and clear dark green, with a short stout 



Fig. 1 1 1 



dark tip, and brown entire margins breaking into numerous stout gray or brown fibres 

 short and spreading near the apex of the leaf, longer, more remote, and forming a thick 

 cobweb-like mass at their base. Flowers appearing in April on thin drooping pedicels, 

 in dense many-flowered glabrous panicles 3-4 long, with elongated pendulous branches; 

 perianth 2|' long, the segments thin, concave, widest above the middle, narrowed at the ends, 

 united at base into a short tube, those of the outer rank being about half as wide as those 

 of the inner rank and two thirds as long; stamens much shorter than the ovary, with slender 

 filaments pilose above the middle and abruptly dilated at apex; ovary conspicuously 

 ridged, light yellow marked with large pale raised lenticels, and gradually narrowed into 

 an elongated slender style. Fruit ripening in early summer, slightly or not at all angled, 

 abruptly contracted at apex into a long or short hooked beak, 3'-4' long, \'-\\' thick, light 

 orange-colored and lustrous when first ripe, becoming nearly black, with thick succulent 

 bitter-sweet flesh; seeds \' long, about \' thick, with a narrow nearly obsolete margin to 

 the rim. 



A tree, often 40 high, with a trunk sometimes 2 in diameter above the broad abruptly 



