articitltTOt 



VOL I] NOVEMBER, 1878. [No. 11. 



THE YUCCA FlLAMENTOSA. 



Adam's needl-e. 



The engraving wMi wliich, through the kindness of Mr. Vick, of 

 liochester, N. Y., we are enabled to embellish this page, is an excellent 

 representation of a very interesting and 

 beautiful plant, which is sufficiently hardy 

 to endure our northei'n climate in some 

 parts of Ontario without any protection, 

 and in others with the aid of the shelter 

 of a few evergreen boughs thrown over it 

 during the winter. 



There are not many things of such a 

 tropical aspect that can be grown in our 

 climate, indeed we can not now recall 

 ■another that so much resembles the Aloes 

 and Century-plants of more southern lati- 

 tudes. The leaves are armed at their points with a strong sharp spine 

 while from their edges float slender, light-gray filaments or threads, so 

 that it did not require a very imaginative temperament to see in the 

 spine the needle, and in the filaments the thread, wherewith Adam 

 and Eve sewed together their fig leaf aprons. It is a perrenial plant) 

 and ever green, contrasting strangely with our winter snows, in truth 

 so strangely that it seems like a migratory creature that has failed to 

 wing its way to sunnier lands, when all its mates departed. 



Its strong branching flower-stalk, laden with its beautiful flower- 

 bells, is well shewn in the engraving, while the single flower in the 

 corner gives an idea of the form and size of each flower. This stalk 

 rises to the height of about five feet, forming near the top numerous 

 branches, all of which are completely covered with blossoms. These 



