104 



p)Tenoid (reservoir of nutritive substance) ma)' be indispensable 

 to withstand desiccation or a drier atmosphere. 

 \k\v York Botanical Garukn. 



FLOWERING OF YUCCA AUSTRALIS 



By S. B. Parish 



In 1878, the late Dr. C. C. Parry collected, in northern Mexico, 

 seeds of a remarkable tree Yucca, which he had not been able to 

 identify with any described species. On his next visit to Cali- 

 fornia, in 1880, he gave some of these seeds to the writer. They 

 germinated readily and the young plants were distributed to 

 several friends in San Bernardino valley. They have grown well 

 and have now attained a height of fifteen to twenty five feet, ac- 

 cording to cultural conditions. Five years ago, the first of them 

 flowered, producing, on a short, abruptly reflexed peduncle, a 

 massive, compact panicle of pure white flowers, very much resem- 

 bling in texture and shape the flowers of Yucca viohavciisis, one 

 of the common indigenous species of this region. It was readily 

 recognized as that species of many synonyms, to which Trelease 

 has given the name Yucca australis (Engelm.), perhaps the most 

 distinct of the whole genus. 



After flowering, this tree, which, like the others, was un- 

 branched, divided into four short branches, and in the spring of 

 the present year three of these produced each its panicle of 

 flowers. It is shown by the illustration, which is reproduced 

 from a photograph. 



The tree is strikingly beautiful when in flower, far handsomer 

 than it appears in the plate in Trelease's Yucceae, which is from 

 a photograph taken in its native habitat in Me.\ico. Our trees 

 have produced no fruit, doubtless by reason of the absence of the 

 proper Fronuba. Yucca cinstralis was introduced into the gar- 

 dens of southern I^' ranee about i860, from seed collected by 

 Roc/.l, the first tree flowering in its sixteenth )'ear, and is there 

 known under a variety of names. In the United States, the San 

 Bernardino trees arc probably the only flowering specimens, but 

 it is well worth cultivation wherever the climate is suitable. 



San Bernardin'), Cai.uornia. 



