NOTES ON THE GENUS YUCCA. 293 
together; from these specimens the leaves and flowers have been described above, while in the account of the stem and 
fruit I had to rely on Mr. Schott’s notes, who possibly may have mixed the fruit of Y. baccata with the foliage of the 
new plant ; but the leaves appear so peculiar that there can scarcely be a doubt about the distinctness of the species to 
which they belong. 
B. Cuistorucca: fructus indehiscens, erectus ? demum siccatus, spongiosus ; semina crassiuscula plana 
vix marginata, albumine integro. — Arbor elatior ramosa, panicula sessili, 
* Folia serrulato-asperata. 
8. Yucca BREVIFOLIA, Engelm. in S. Watson, Bot. King Expl, 1871, p. 496: caule elato ramoso ; foliis brevi- 
bus e basi lata sensim angustatis late linearibus supra planiusculis versus apicem concavis subtus convexis carinatis 
pungentibus rigidissimis utrumque wadterg margine ae serrulatis ; panicula sessili ramosa; fructu ovato 
obsolete 6-angulato acutato. — Y. Draconis ? var. arborescens, . Bot. Whi c. R. Exp. iv. 147, 
On the arid plateaus between ahs Colorado River ae a South California on lah in latitude 34}°- 
36°, at an altitude of 2000-4000 feet, in patches from Southwestern Utah, Northwestern Arizona to Southern Nevada 
and to Southeastern California, where it is abundantly distributed on the “ Palm-plains,” es called “ Tebachipi 
desert,” between the Mohave River and Walker’s Pass, often forming straggling forests. It was first noticed by 
Fremont, 1844, ten years later by Bigelow, and since then by Brewer, Parry, Palmer, and Fetiieis, “alk has lately even 
the object of photographic pictures. Leaves and fruit with seeds have been obtained, and young plants 
raised, but the flower remains unknown. 
This remarkable Yucca makes considerable trees, 15-20-30 feet high ; the stout rough-barked trunks, [48] 
often 1-2 feet in diameter, 3-10 feet high, before they send off the long and numerous branches, of which, in a 
very characteristic photograph, I have counted 23 large and small ones. Leaves stiffer, harder and rougher, and per- 
haps shorter than in any other species, sometimes only 3-4, usually 6-8, and rarely, in young and vigorous specimens, 
even 10-12 inches long, 3-6 lines Hae not at all narrowed above the base, glaucous, very rough on both sides, with 
small but stout whitish or brown teeth on the edge, and a stout and sharp brown point. The flower is said to be 
small and white. <A fruit before me is is evidently erect, as the fragment of the branch to which it is attached indicates, 
oval, slightly 6-sided, pointed but not rostrate, and tipped with the ap egrtbi short, sessile stigmas. The fruit 
is light and perfectly dry, the brown somewhat spongy fragile pericarp 2-3 lines in thickness. Seeds large, 11-12 
m. in diameter, 2-24 mm. thick, with a narrow margin and an even, ae ruminated, albumen. In both the fruits 
I have been able to examine, the traces of the moth Pronuba are apparent by the perforated rind and gnawed seeds or 
their empty ring-like rims. 
C. CHanoyocca : fructus capsularis, erectus, septicide dehiscens, demum apice 6-valvis ; semina tenuia 
plana, latius marginata, albumine integro. — Acaules vel vix caulescentes, panicula in scapo elata. 
* Folia margine serrulato-asperata. 
Yucca RupIcoLa, Scheele in Linnea, 23, p. 143, 1850: acaulis, foliis oe supra basin latiorem 
angustatis canaliculatis supra planiusculis subtus convexis rigidis erectis pungentibus ; scapo elato infra bracteis ma- 
joribus foliaceis ornato, panicula pyramidali laxiflora besetele. parvis daisies stipata ; florum majorum segmen- 
tis ovatis acuminatis nunc aristatis apice sub-nudis, staminibus rectis demum patulis ovario ipso equilongis, stylo 
elongato ; capsula acuta seu rostrata nune medio constricta; seminibus angustius marginatis.— Y. tortifolia, Lind- 
heimer in sched. 1846, Y. lutescens, Carriére, 1. c. vii. 579, ex Baker. 
Var. a. petit foliis saturate viridibus varie tortis ——— sepius obliquis dorso levibus et capsulis cum 
seminibus majoribt 
. B. rigid: : foliis pallidis glaucis planis dorso carinatis asperatis et capsulis cum seminibus ee [49] 
Western Texas, in fertile soil mixed with broken-up cretaceous limestone rocks, discovered by F. Lind- 
heimer, 1845, on the plateaus west of New Braunfels, and described from his specimens by Scheele; Siena afterwards 
by the botanists of the Mexican Boundary Survey; the second or southwestern form was sent by Dr. Gr ro 
Mapimi in the Mexican State of Coahuila, and by Dr. Bigelow from the mountains of the volcanic district of Bufatello 
near Presidio del Norte on the Rio Grande. — Flowers in Texas in May and June, “after Y. Treculiana and before 
Y. angustifolia.” 
As far as my information goes this species is always stemless ; a misapprehension of Lindheimer’s notes must be 
the cause of Scheele’s, and after him Baker’s, ranging it among the caulescent Yuccas, with a “stem 4-7 feet high ;” 
rootstock of few stout branches 1-2 feet long; leaves dark or bright green, opaque, narrowed above a not very broad 
base 1-2 feet long, 3-1} inches wide, with brown-red, strong serratures, mostly undulate, oblique, one side longer than 
the other, therefore twisted, stout, thick, sharp-pointed, but not to be compared with Y. aloifolia. Scape 4-7 feet 
high, with long leafy narrow lanceolate bracts ; panicle with few large “ greenish-white” flowers, which apparently 
read 3-41, perhaps 5 inches, and are well characterized by the very acute, sometimes even aristate when dried, 
