124 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Distribution. Sand dunes and the borders of beaches of the South Carolina 

 seacoast. 



Often cultivated with many forms in the gardens and pleasure-grounds of all 

 temperate countries. 



3. Fruit a capsule. 



9. Yucca radiosa, Trel. Spanish Dagger. 



(Yucca constricta, Silva N. Am. x. 27.) 



Leaves 20'-30' long, \'-% wide, rigid, gradually narrowed from the thin base, 

 tapering toward the apex, or sometimes somewhat broadest at the middle, thin, flat 

 on the upper surface, slightly thickened and rounded on the lower surface toward 



the base, smooth, pale yellow-green, with slender stiff red-brown points, and thick- 

 ened entire pale margins soon splitting into long slender filaments. Flowers in 

 May and June on slender spreading more or less recurved pedicels, in glabrous much- 

 branched panicles 4-6 long, raised on stout naked stems 3-7 in length ; perianth 

 ovate and acute in the bud, when fully expanded 3^'^!' across, its segments united 

 at the base into a short slender distinct tube, ovate or slightly obovate, those of the 

 outer rank usually acute, not more than half as broad as those of the inner rank; 

 stamens as long or a little longer than the ovary, with slender nearly terete 

 filaments; ovary sessile, almost terete, pale green, abruptly contracted into the 

 stout elongated style. Fruit an erect oblong capsule rounded and obtuse at the 

 ends, tipped by a short stout mucro, conspicuously 3-ribbed, with rounded ridges on 

 the back of the carpels, l'-2' long, !'-!' wide, with a thin firm light brown ligneous 

 outer coat closely adherent to the lustrous light yellow inner coat, in ripening split- 

 ting from the top to the bottom between the carpels and through their backs at the 

 apex; seeds \' wide and about ^' thick, with a smooth coat and thin brittle wide 

 margins to the rim. 



A tree, with a tough much-branched underground stem penetrating deep into the 

 soil and a trunk often 10-12 high and T-S' in diameter, covered above with a 

 thick thatch of the pendant dead leaves of many years, simple, or branched with 

 numerous short stout branches densely covered with leaves at first erect, then 

 spreading nearly at right angles, and finally pendulous. Bark dark brown, irregu- 



