FURTHER STUDIES OF YUCCAS. 195 



habit, is of an inconspicuous greenish white, and possesses 

 an odor which is so oppressive as to render the flowers 

 intolerable in a room, although the usual designation of 

 fetid is not strictly accurate.* Though the flowers differ 

 somewhat from the common Yucca form, they are quite as 

 variable as those of other species of the genus, and range 

 from globose to nearly oblong, or even prismatically pyri- 

 form when first opening. The petals differ from those of 

 other species in being very thick, sometimes measuring as 

 much as a quarter of an inch, and correspondingly rigid, 

 and on different plants they vary from glabrous to very 

 pubescent, and from glossy to quite dull, but usually with 

 the waxen appearance so commonly seen in the genus. 



The filaments here are generally much shorter than the 

 pistil, against which they are very closely applied except 

 near the top, where they are often clavately thickened, and 

 the lower part is usually villous papillate. The pale lemon 

 yellow anthers differ strikingly from those of eastern spe- 

 cies, and in degree from those of other Calif ornian Yuccas, 

 in dehiscing only some forty-eight hours after the flower 

 has opened, while the stigma appears to be fully receptive 

 at the time of first expansion. 



The whitish-green almost conical pistil is destitute of a 

 clearly marked style such as baccata and filamentosa show, 

 but its upper part is not occupied by the ovarian cells, and 

 so is virtually stylar. The lobing between the carpels at 

 top is so slight that the stigma is almost equally 6-notched. 

 The stylar canal is rather ample above, but its connection 

 with the ovarian chanibers is through a series of slits, 

 rather than open pores, and, at least after pollination, the 

 passages are often occluded by the conducting tissue. The 

 septal nectar glands are less developed in this species than 

 in any other which I have studied. They are always nar- 

 row, and in some cases do not reach below the upper third 



* Cf. Parry, Amer. Naturalist, fc*. 141 ; abst. in Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 . s. iii. 492. 



