NOTES ON YUCCA HYBRIDS. 



<9 



known to the eminent authority upon these 

 plants, Prof. William Trelease, of St. Louis, 

 unless it should prove to be the same as his T. 

 aloifolia conspicua. The variety Draconis is so 

 well known and so distinct in our Naples gar- 

 dens that it could never be confounded with 

 gigantea. T. Schottii was first known in Paler- 

 mo gardens under the erroneous name of macro- 

 carpa — a plant which has not reached flowering 

 force in Italy. A curious and very fine plant is 

 T.viridijlora with large green flowers. My col- 

 lection now contains about 200 very fine hy- 

 brids, all flowering, and more than 2,000 seed- 

 lings of the last three years, not yet strong 

 enough to flower. I have also T. Sandereana, a 

 good hybrid plant, issue o&jilamentosa bracteata 

 X recurvifolia, and, contrary to general rule 

 amongst hybrids, it bearsseed occasionally. All 

 my other hybrid Yuccas have so far remained 

 completely sterile, though frequently pollen- 

 ised with their own pollen, or that of other good 

 hybrids or species. The seedlings of T. faccida 

 and jilamentosa, if well cultivated and richly 

 manured, flower here in the fourth year after 

 sowing, some plants even during the third year. 

 Hybrids of aloifolia only flower after the fourth 

 or fifth year, and those of Treculeana only after 

 the fifth year. The growth of all my hybrids is 

 most vigorous and theirvitality extraordinary. 

 Their variety of form is such that amongst the 

 seedlings of the same plant no two are alike and 

 many are totally distinct. Generally speaking, 

 they show something of the character of their 

 parents, often more of the father than of the 

 mother, but the contrary is at times the case. 

 Amongst my most notable gains is Tucca X 

 Elwesiana, a splendid plant, issue of Treculeana 

 X recurvifolia ; the leaves are as rigid and thick 

 as those of the former, but as long as those of 

 the latter kind, whilst the very fine pyramidal 

 flower stalk, crowded with brilliant flowers, is 

 much longer than that of either parent. The 

 same parents gave me also my beautiful Tucca x 

 Fosteriana, so named in honour of Sir Michael 

 Foster. This plant I consider to be the finest 

 of my entire collection. Its leaves show the 

 thickness and rigidity of the one parent com- 

 bined with the length and drooping form of 

 the second, while the enormous inflorescence, 

 fully as long as the best spikes of recurvifolia, 

 with its long flower stems, has at the same 

 time the width and density of the mother- 



plant, and the individual flowers finer, and rare- 

 ly or very little tinged with purple. The leaves 

 are not concave, nor filiferous, but brown-mar- 

 gined, pungent, and dark green. After six years 

 ol incessant toil my Yucca garden has rewarded 

 me by a splendid show of flowers, those plants 

 which failed to bloom in 1902 having done so 



YUCCA COLUMBIANA. (Engraved for " Flora.") 



in 1903. The hybrids of T. Treculeana and 

 gloriosa are slow to flower, but most of the other 

 forms are remarkable for their early blooming, 

 and for their wonderful abundance in flower. 

 Two of them (Tucca x magnified and Tucca x 

 Koel/eana) flower in small pots, from a single 

 shoot, in their second year of growth ; this 

 would seem to promise such wealth of flower 

 as must result in their general cultivation in gar- 



b 2 



