LILIACEAE 83 



Grows in drifting sands along the coast, and occasionally es- 

 capes from cultivation around old settlements in the interior of the 

 coastal plain, for example, along roadsides between Prairieville 

 and Faunsdale. near the line between Hale and Marengo Coun- 

 ties, in the black belt. 



Yucca filamentosa, L. Bear-grass. 



It is stretching the definition a little to call this a woody 

 plant, but it is about as much so as our palmettoes. It has rather 

 stiff evergreen leaves in a knee-high tuft, and a branched flower- 

 stalk in summer, often taller than a man. 



It grows in a considerable variety of habitats, from sunny 

 old fields to shady bluffs (if it is all one species), but all have one 

 characteristic in common : they are well protected from fire. It 

 is nowhere abundant, however, and the following list includes all 

 its known natural habitats in the state. (It is liable to turn up 

 almost anywhere in old fields.) 



IB. Rocky woods near Blount Springs. 



2B. Common on shaly bluffs near rivers, especially in Tuscaloosa 

 County. 



5. Seen from train once in Clay County. Common in northeastern 

 part of Chilton County. 



11. On bluffs, Clarke and Monroe Counties. 



SMILACACEAE. Smilax Family. 



Contains three genera and about 200 species, mostly 

 woody vines, in tropical and temperate regions. Mostly American. 



SMILAX, L. Grkenbrier. Bamboo vine, etc. 



Mostly prickly woody vines, climbing by tendrils, some ever- 

 green and some not. They have berries about the size of a buck- 

 shot, black in most species. Some of the species are ill-defined or 

 imperfectly understood, so that their number cannot be stated ex- 

 actly, but there seem to be eight or ten woody ones in Alabama. 

 Only six have been identified by the writer, but a reader who is 

 sufficiently interested can find some information about the rest 

 of them in Mohr's Plant Life of Alabama. Some of them are 

 cultivated for ornament or gathered for decorative purposes, and 

 a few have a limited use in medicine. 



