154 



The Yuccas 



lo cm. long; the flowers are long-stalked, spreading or pendulous, their perianth 

 8 to lo cm. broad, the segments lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, sharp-pointed, 

 4 to 5 cm. long, slightly imited at base, creamy white with more or less violet 

 and purple on the outer surface; stamens about as long. £is the ovary, their fila- 

 ments rather slender, only slightly bent outward and a little hairy; anthers notched 

 at the apex; ovary sessile or very nearly so, greenish, narrowed upward into the 

 oblong sometimes 3-lobed style. The fruit is an indehiscent leathery capsule, 

 nodding, nearly oblong or obo void-oblong, 5 to 6 cm. long, 2.5 cm. thick, usually 

 constricted near the middle, prominently 6-ridged, its base rounded, and the apex 

 sharp-pointed. The seeds are black and shining, rounded-triangular, 6 to 7 mm. 

 long, 1.5 mm. thick. 



The Spanish bayonet is largely cultivated in warm-temperate and tropical 

 America, and in southern Europe, where several garden varieties are grown. 



3. SPANISH DAGGER — Yucca aloifolia Linnaeus 



Limited in the wild state in our area to sandy soils from North Carolina to 

 southern Florida and westward to eastern Louisiana, especially abundant on the 



sand dunes and islands of the coast, 

 this also occurs in Bermuda, the West 

 Indies, and eastern Mexico, attaining 

 a height of 9 meters, with a trunk di- 

 ameter of 1.5 dm. 



The trunk is usually slightly swol- 

 len at the base, erect or inclining, 

 slender, often simple, commonly 

 sparingly branched and frequently 

 suckering from the base. The rind, 

 sometimes exposed near the ground, 

 is thick, rough, and brown, other- 

 wise the trunk is covered with leaf- 

 scars or closely appressed deflexed 

 dead leaves which persist for many 

 years; near the top the living 

 leaves radiate in all directions. The 

 branches are short, erect, and seldom 

 exceed three in number. The leaves 

 Fig. 114. -Spanish Dagger. ^^^ numerous, dark green, smooth, 



narrowly linear-oblong, 3 to 9 dm. long, flat, rather thick and stiff, the broad 

 base light colored and abruptly contracted to the narrow blade, which is widest 

 near the middle, a little concave above, tipped with a stiff, sharp, brown point 

 and margined with small, thick teeth. The flowers appear from June to Decem- 

 ber in conic panicles 3 to 9 dm. long, compact and close to the leaves; the bracts 



