292 NOTES ON THE GENUS YUCCA. 
and far into Mexico (Chihuahua, Dr. Wislizenus, Parras, G. Thurber, and Saltillo, Dr. Gregg). — Flowering season 
according to latitude from March to June, or in Northern Mexico, where with the rainy season a second spring opens, 
often again in August and September. 
The very full series of specimens before me satisfies me as to the great variability of this species, the extremes of 
which are so very dissimilar. The typical plant toward its northern limits is stemless, more southwardly it makes 
trunks of 1 or 2 to 8 or 10 feet high, covered with the refracted dead leaves. Leaves 14-3 feet long, 1-2 neue [45] 
wide, narrowed downward, gradually attenuated into a very stout, sharp or blunt hniee point, channelled o 
quite concave, thicker than in most other species, very stiff and rough, especially on the back ; on old tia ae 
Dr. Palmer found the leaves scarcely over a foot long and an inch mite, but very thick. The fibres are as thic 
ordinary twine, and often regularly curved backward. The panicle of the stemless form is raised on a scape of duets 
its own length; in caulescent ones the peduncle is shorter. The exterior bracts are 4 or 5 inches long and 2 wide, 
similar to those of the last species, but narrower. e flowers are large, spreading 4-5 inches, segments 23-3 inches 
long, 3-1 inch wide, stamens papillose-hispid, as long as ovary, rarely at last reflexed ; pistil 1-2 inches in length, 
style slender, unusually long for the genus, in the largest flowers equalling the ovary, in others } or only } its length ; 
ovules about 0.4 mm. thick. The fruit is a dark purple berry, oval, “ about the size and shape of a hen’s egg,” with 
a very distinct and often elongated beak, which is marked with six grooves, while the fruit itself is not angled or 
grooved. Some fruits I have seen were 3 inches long and 2 in thickness, with a beak of about half their length; one 
fruit from Arizona was 5 inches long, cylindric and curved. The base is protracted below the remnants of the perigon, 
which is not the case in the fruits of Y. alowfolia or Y. Treculiana ;»the pods of these three species are remarkably dis- 
tinct, and always easily recognized, while the seeds themselves are very similar. The fruits are said to be “savory 
like dates,” and are eaten fresh by whites and Indians, and cured by the latter for winter provisions, Dr. Palmer 
informs me that the Arizona Indians find the stewed flower-buds and flowers quite pleasant and nourishing. 
seeds are often distinguished from those of the other Sarcoyuccas by their large size, 10-17 mm. in the longer diame- 
ter and 2-3 mm. in thickness ; but other fruits from the same regions have seeds only 7-8 mm. long and 1.8-2 mm. 
thick. 
ar. B., the southern or Mexican form of this eat is principally distinguished by its smaller flowers, 2-3 inches 
wide, with ovate or lance-ovate segments 1}-1? inches long and usually more than ie as wide ; by their short style 
and the somewhat thinner, less rough, leaves with thinner, often red-brown fibres; the panicle is sometimes 
paiement. = Greg, rege sai that . is very abundant in the plains and valleys ee, * Saltillo; his statement is [46] 
1 otherwise, that sometimes it reaches the height of fifty feet, with leaves 1-3 
feet long, “ seed said to be actively purgative.” Prof. Thurber brought from Peres leaves and fruit of this species, an 
account of which, together with a cut, is found in Bartlett’s Personal Narrative, II. 491: “a plain covered with Yuccas 
presents a beautiful appearance when in flower in pyramidal spikes several feet in length .... the trees 25-30 feet 
high and 2-3 feet in diameter, with ten or a dozen branches.” He mentions that the fibres of the leaves are used for 
cordage, the trunks for palings or they are split into slabs for the covering of huts; the tender top of the stem is 
roasted and eaten under the name of quiote ; the edible fruits are called Jatiros. A specimen of the latter I find oval, 
2 inches long, with a beak of } inch; seeds small for the species. We learn in the above account that the inflorescence 
is pyramidal ; the cut represents it as sessile or peduncled, and about 3 times as long as wide. 
The Californian forms are in foliage intermediate between the northern and southern extremes; a leaf collected 
at Monterey and distinguished by its narrowness (less than ? inch wide) probably indicates the northern limit of the 
ies. 
The caulescent fibrous-leaved Yuccas, recently introduced from Mexico in European establishments, of none of 
which either flower or fruit is known, seem distinguished by narrower and smoother leaves, some with red, others with 
gray marginal fibres, but they may possibly be only forms of our species ; they are Yucca periculosa, Y. polyphylla, 
¥. sireiniata, and Y, scabrifolia, Baker in Gard. Ch. 1870, p. 1088, and Y. filifera of the gardens. 
7. Yucooa Scuorri, nov. spec.: caule humiliore sepius e basi ramoso; foliis minoribus lanceolato-linearibus 
rectis rigidis crassis sub-pungentibus supra concavis subtus convexis levissimis versus basin paulo angustatis, margine 
filis tenuissimis rectis albidis ornato ; panicule nune puberule sparsiflore supra folia elate pedunculo et ramis flexuosis, 
bracteis exterioribus magnis lanceolatis ; florum minorum staminibus demum uncinatis, ovario stylum brevem stig- 
mate brevi coronatum abeunte ; bacca ovata breviter rostrata, seminibus magnis crassis.— Y. brevifolia, Schott in 
Herb. Y. puberula, Torrey in Bot. Mex. Bound. 221, non 
Upper Santa Cruz River in Southern Arizona, A. Schott, in rao and July, 1855.— Trunk 2-5 feet 
high, crooked, covered with a shaggy coat of dead leaves, Leaves “yellowish-green,” 9-10 inches long, 6-8 [47] 
lines wide ; marginal fibres singularly fine and straight ; panicle viahishci or glabrous, its axis not straight, 
as is usual in these plants, Mr. Schott expressly remarks, bees variously twisted ; lower bracts 4-5 inches long, 1 inch 
‘wide ; the pendulous, ovate, short-rostrate berry not at all angled, about 2 inches long. — Some doubt may exist 
whether all the parts of specimens in Schott’s, Torrey’s and my own herbarium, all collected by Dr. Schott, belong 
