FLORA AND SYLVA, 



HESPEROYUCCA WHIPPLEI. 



An interesting description is given by Mons. 

 Allard, of Angers, of the recent flowering in 

 the open air of one of these beautiful plants 

 of California. The plant was raised from seed 

 in 1884, and after growing several seasons in 

 a tub was finally planted in a dry corner at the 

 foot of a sunny wall. Sometimes lightly touched 

 by frost in severe winters it none the less made 

 good progress, and in May of last year began 

 to throw up its flower-spike, which in three 

 weeks reached a height of over 9 feet, with 

 a superb mass of nearly 2,500 flowers. Though 

 this is small as compared with spikes often seen 

 in its home upon the scorching plains of west- 

 ern America, the production of such a spike 

 in Europe is worthy of record. The Hespero- 

 yucca seems to occupy a place between the 

 Agaves and the Yuccas, resembling many of 

 the first in appearance, and like them dying 

 as it blooms, while the flowers themselves are 

 nearly identical with those of the Yucca group. 

 The flowers, carried upon the upper part of 

 the spike, are of creamy-white touched with 

 violet upon the outside of the petals, and with 

 a penetrating odour of orange-flowers ; they 

 open in long succession, beginning at the base 

 of the column, each flower lasting in beauty 

 several days and closing partially during the 

 daytime. A curious feature of the rapidly grow- 

 ing spike is its great sensibility to light, shown 

 in the marked dip of its growing point toward 

 the sun, whose path across the heavens is fol- 

 lowed by this mute pointer throughout the 

 day, changing in direction from hour to hour. 

 Six perfect fruits in the form of fleshy capsules 

 of about an inch long appeared upon the upper 

 part of the spike, without any of the care neces- 

 sary to induce fertilisation with most of the 

 Yuccas. The leaves of the plant spring from 

 a low woody base and are about 2 feet long 

 by nearly an inch wide, edged with tiny saw- 

 like teeth and terminating in a sharp brown 

 point. Normally arranged in a dense bristling 

 rosette, they part on each side from the centre 

 to give passage to the flower-spike, and rapidly 

 wither away as it develops. It is a common 

 plant among the mountains of the coast range 

 in southern California and is a glorious sight 

 whenin flower; avarizty vio/acea bears flowers 

 shaded with purple. 



THE WHITE WILLOW IN 

 SUFFOLK. 



This engraving was intended to illus- 

 trate our article on the White Willow 

 (see Flora and Sylva, Part 1 i),but was 

 not ready in time. The illustration is 

 from a picture by Mr. Moon, sketched 

 near Brandon, where White Willows 

 grow in great numbers. It is a poor, 

 sandy soil, and one not likely to suit 

 the trees so well as heavy bottoms, but 

 there are depressions here and there 

 with a wet subsoil in which groups of 

 Willows thrive and attain a stature of 

 sometimes 80 or 90 feet, with a beauty 

 which, perhaps, no other native tree 

 can surpass. 



A New Wild Apple [Pirus Doumeri). — This 

 new tree has recently been found by M. d' Andre 

 in Annam, upon the outskirts of a mountain 

 forest at an elevation of 6,000 to 7,000 feet ; it is 

 of tall erect growth, with a trunk 4 feet round. 

 Its leaves are of a longer oval and more sharply 

 pointed than is usual in the Apple, and though 

 the fruit is similar in shape and flavour to the 

 wild Apple its pulp contains many of the hard 

 woodymassesoftenfoundin thePear; its flowers 

 are still unknown, so that to which section 

 of Pyrus it belongs cannot for the moment 

 be determined. Its interest lies in its possible 

 value as a stock for grafting western Apples and 

 Pears, and enabling them to be grown nearer 

 the tropics than is now the case. The table- 

 land on which it grows is near the frontier 

 of Cochin China, and has been secured as a 

 health station for Europeans, and is fitted, as 

 to climate, for the culture of temperate fruits 

 which are to be tried upon this new stock. 

 For this purpose Pyrus Doumeri may prove 

 of economic value in other regions bordering 

 the tropics so that the experiments to be made 

 throughout the French colonies should be 

 watched with much interest by our own colo- 

 nial authorities. — Lyon horticole. 



