LILIACEAE. 



Vol. I. 



15. YUCCA L. Sp. PL 319. 1753. 



Large plants, with a short sometimes subterranean caudex, or tall woody and leafy stem, 

 or bracted scape, the leaves linear or lanceolate, usually rigid and sharp-pointed, bearing 

 long marginal thread-like fibers in our species. Flowers large, bracted, nodding in a ter- 

 minal raceme or panicle. Perianth campanulate, or nearly globular, white in our species, 

 of 6 ovate, or ovate-lanceolate separate or slightly united segments. Stamens hypogynous, 

 shorter than the perianth; filaments thickened above, often papillose; anthers small, versa- 

 tile. Ovary sessile, 3-celled; or imperfectly 6-celled; ovules numerous; style columnar, 

 short, with 3 stigmatic lobes. Fruit a loculicidal or septicidal capsule, or fleshy, or spongy 

 and indehiscent. Seeds numerous, flattened, horizontal. [The Haytien name.] 



About 16 species, natives of North and Central America. 



Fruit fleshy, indehiscent, drooping. 

 Fruit an erect capsule. 



Leaves a"-6" wide ; scape short, bearing a long raceme. 



Leaves io"-2' wide; scape 2°-io° high, bearing a large panicle, 



Type species : Yucca aloifolia L. 

 1. Y. baccata. 



Y. glauca. 



Y. filamentosa. 



i. Yucca baccata Torr. Spanish Bayonet 

 or Dagger. Fig. 1277. 



Yucca baccata Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. Surv. 221. 

 1859. 



Caudex very short, or sometimes 2°-8° tall, 

 covered with the reflexed dead leaves. Leaves 

 ii°-3° long, i'-2' wide with a much wider base, 

 acuminate, with a stout brown point, concave, the 

 marginal fibers 2'-5' long; panicle peduncled; 

 pedicels stout, 8"-2o" long; flowers 4'-s' broad; 

 perianth-segments 2J-3J' long, 8"-l2" wide ; style 

 slender, as long as the ovary, or shorter; fruit 

 oval, dark purple, fleshy, indehiscent, edible, 

 drooping, 2-3' long, 1Y-2' in diameter, with a 

 6-grooved beak of one-half its length or less; 

 seeds 3"-8" long, i"-ii" thick. 



Western Kansas (?), southern Colorado to Texas, 

 California and Mexico. Hosh-kawn. April-June. 

 Fruit ripe Sept.-Oct. 



2. Yucca glauca Nutt. Bear-grass. Soap- 

 weed. Fig. 1278. 



Yucca glauca Nutt. Fraser's Cat. 181 3. 



Yucca angustifolia Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 227. 1814. 



Caudex very short, the leaves all basal, narrowly 

 linear, smooth, very stiff, sharp-pointed, l°-3° long, 

 3"-6" wide, with a broader base, concave, at least 

 when dry, the marginal fibers filiform, usually nu- 

 merous, scape short; flowers greenish-white, i¥- 

 3' broad, racemose or in a little-branched panicle 

 i°-6° long; perianth-Segments ovate, i'-ii' long; 

 style short, green; stigmas shorter than the ovary; 

 pedicels stout, erect and i'-iY long in fruit; capsule 

 oblong, 2'-3' long, about 1' thick, 6-sided; seeds 

 very flat, about i' broad. 



In dry soil, Iowa and South Dakota to Montana, 

 south to Missouri, Texas and Arizona. Adam's-needle. 

 Palmillo.' May-June. 



Yucca arkansana Trelease, with grass-like flexible 

 leaves, growing from Arkansas to Texas, may occur in 

 southern Missouri. 



