56 THE LILY FAMILY. 



is tubular-oblong. The leaves are lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, consider- 

 ably longer and narrower than those of the yellow colic-root, and are 

 thin and flat with the same pleasing yellowish tint. Through the Alleghanies, 

 the mountain people gather the roots of this plant in the early autumn, as 

 they have medicinal properties, and by selling them make quite a little money. 

 Abundantly it is found in sandy, moist soil throughout much of our range. 



SPANISH BAYONET. ( Plate XIX.) 

 Yucca aloifblia. 



F/ozvers : large; showy; growing in a terminal panicle and nodding from round, 

 bracted pedicels. Perianth: campanulate, rounded, with six ovate lanceolate seg- 

 ments, ])ointed or blunt at the apex and somewhat united at the hase where they 

 are purple tinted. Stamens: six; short ; included. Fruit: long; elliptical, purple 

 when rijie. Leaves : one to three feet long; alternate; clustered at the summit of 

 the caudex; linear-lanceolate; taper-pointed at the apex and tipped with a sharp 

 prickle; rough and file-like on the margins; soon becoming retlexed. Occasion- 

 ally a tree with endogenous stem twenty-five feet high, more often from four to ten 

 feet high. 



So familiar in cultivation is now this genus of plants that they appear less 

 strange than formerly to those who see them along the banks of the St. 

 John's River, or on the sand dunes of the Atlantic coast. They are striking, 

 bold individuals and have much about them that is interesting. As a means 

 of preventing self-fertilization their stamens are shorter than the ovary and 

 insects are therefore necessary to carry their pollen masses to the stigma. 

 Yucca aloifolia, however, is constructed so as to be more nearly able to 

 perform this act than any other of the genus. Moths, known popularly as 

 the yucca moths, are usually their ambassadors and so wonderful arc their 

 tactics that they w^ll repay a close and observant study. The bogus yucca 

 moth assists also in the disseminating of the seeds. In the stalk of the flow- 

 ering panicle it lays its eggs and, therefore, late in the season, when the 

 fruit is well dried, the young lavae cut through the stalk, and as it falls to the 

 ground the seeds become scattered. The fact that the fruit of Yucca aloi- 

 folia dries up when ripe makes some such vigorous stroke as this necessary. 

 Mocking-birds greedily devour the seeds and also effect their distribution. 



By the negroes and many whites as well, the sweet, fleshy fruits of the 

 yucca are eaten and which, from a similarity in their shape, they call bananas. 

 In Mexico where there are several species this practice is prevalent, and 

 they are besides made into a fermented beverage. Both the Indians and 



