32 TREES AND SHR! 



transplanted with but little danger of loss. When it is re- 

 membered that a "Spanish Bayonet" or "Soapweed" eight or 

 ten feet high, is probably as old as a cottonwood a foot in 

 diameter, it seems strange that so few of these Yuccas die 

 when transplanted. And they are to be had for the digging, 

 any place in the southern part of our State. 



Another advantage possessed by these plants, is that 

 they are always in full leaf and green; and their wax-like 

 blossoms, when they come are most beautiful. For massing, 

 for hedges, for formal bedding plants, and for low windbreaks 

 they are most effective. A hedge or windbreak six feet high 

 may be had fully grown for the planting, and such a 

 hedge will give protection to other less vigorous and vet val- 

 uable smaller plants. Without doubt there are many places 

 where the Yuccas may be used effectively for beauty and 

 comfort, but they will not become large shade-casting trees, 

 though they may reach a height of eighteen or twenty feet. 

 However, we should recognize their usefulness within their 

 limits and utilize them in locations where practically nothing 

 else will grow. 



Spanish Bayonet. Spanish Dagger. La Palma (Yucca 

 macrocarpa). This is the broad and stiff leaved species which 

 is common on the mesas in the southern part of the State. 

 Ordinarily it has a straight stem six to eight inches in diameter 

 and four to eight feet high with a head of stiff spreading 

 leaves about four feet in diameter at the top. Under favor- 

 able conditions this plant will reach a height of eighteen or 

 twenty feet. The stem is usually simple, but sometimes it 

 branches either at the base or some distance from the ground. 

 When it branches from the ground it not infrequently makes 

 beautiful formal bedding plants, producing a mass of radiat- 

 ing green leaves which is almost geometrically perfect. This 

 plant is particularly easy to transplant, because its under- 

 ground stem is rarely over eighteen inches long, and its roots 

 are small and fibrous, thus rendering the digging relatively 

 easy. A very little water in excess of the rainfall during the 



