794 
THE MEXICAN DAGGER PLANT. 
Yucca Baccata Torrey, Botany Mexican Boundary Survey, 
page 22, [1858]. ‘Type locality: ‘‘ High table lands between 
the Rio Grande and the Gila,’’ New Mexico. 
Dr. William Trelease, Director of the Missouri Botanical 
Garden, in his report for 1893, page 185, says: ‘‘ With the pos- 
sible exception of Y. glauca, this is the most widely distributed 
ot our species, ranging in a variety of forms from southern Colo- 
rado into Mexico and to California, where it extends from about 
Monterey into the peninsula.’’ Following this are interesting 
notes and observations on this species, especially concerning its 
pollination, together with a plate (pl. 20). In his previous re- 
port for 1892, the same author illustrates this species in plates 
numbered 2 and 48, the first herewith reproduced through the 
kindness of Dr. Trelease, the other representing the fruit. 
Dr. George Engelmann, in Watson’s Botany cf the Fortieth 
Parallel, describes the species thus: ‘‘ Stems none, or short, or 
several feet high; leaves very thick and rigid, lance-linear, mar- 
rowed above the broad base, concave, terminating in a stout 
spine, with very coarse marginal fibres; flowers panicled; peta 
rhombic-ovate—1 4-14 inches long—or linear-lanceolate, some- 
times over three inches long; ovary attenuate into a style; stig- 
mas short; fruit ovate or cylindric, long-rostrate.. From New 
Mexico and S. Colorado, through S. Utah, to Arizona, Califor- 
nia, and Mexico. Northward a low plant, it becomes a tree far- 
ther south; leaves 114-2 feet long; 134-2 inches wide. The 
edible sweet fruit are often called ‘‘ Dates;’’ seeds variable in 
size, usually the largest in the genus, 5-6 lines wide, 1%-1% 
lines thick.’’ For other observations on this species, made by 
Dr. George Engelmann, see Engelmann Botany, pages 291-292. 
F. V. Coville, in contributions from the U. S. National Her- 
barium, Vol. IV., pages 202-203, seeks to establish two species 
out of what has heretofore been referred to Yucca baccata, and 
restricts the name to the acaulescent form. But he has not made 
it at all plain to the writer that two species exist, or that the 
form which he takes to be typical was the one collected by Dr. 
Bigslow. Having a wide field acquaintance with the plant th, 
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