252 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



matter, we think we shall render a ser- 

 vice if simply giving a clear list of the 

 kinds and their varieties. He prefaces 

 his list of species with the following 

 remarks : — 



"This genus is the largest and most 

 widely distributed of the group Yucceae, 

 extending southwards from the great 

 bend of the Missouri river to the table- 

 land north of the city of Mexico, and, 

 after a break of unknown extent, into 

 the centre of CentralAmerica and east- 

 wards to the Atlantic, the Bermudas, 

 and eastern Antilles. The capsular spe- 

 cies are the prevalent northern form, 

 and reach from Dakota to the Mexican 

 state of Durango,and from the Atlantic 

 to Nevada, with the exception of the 

 Great Lake region, and that of the up- 

 per Mississippi and its eastern tributa- 

 ries. The baccate species with papery 

 core are of the southern Rocky Moun- 

 tain and western region, reaching the 

 Pacific in California, and the prevailing 

 form of the Mexican table-lands. A sin- 

 gle species with coreless fleshy fruit is 

 restricted to the southern Atlantic coast 

 of the United States, a small part of the 

 Gulf coast, and some of the islands to 

 the east, with a marked variety in the 

 isolated peninsula of Yucatan ; and a 

 single species with similar foliage, but 

 forming a core in the fruit, occurs in 

 Central America, where its distribution 

 is unknown (its real home appearing to 

 be the mountains below Orizaba, Mexi- 

 co. Several species and many varieties 

 are known only in gardens, and two 

 species are of local distribution on the 

 south-eastern sea coast of the United 

 States." 



T. Jilamentosa (LinnEeus). — Acaulescent, 

 cespitosely suckering. Leaves firm, stiffly erect 

 or spreading, about 18 inches long, usually 

 something over 1 inch wide, narrowed above 

 the base, attenuate or abruptly acute, occasion- 

 ally somewhat pungent, green or a little glau- 

 cous, the back frequently roughened in lines ; 

 marginal threads rather thick and curly. Inflor- 

 escence 3 to 10 feet high, long-pedunculate, 

 glabrous or very rarely puberulent. Flowers 

 white, usually tinged with cream or green or 

 rarely browned, expanding 2 to 3 inches ; style 

 white, elongated, at most slightly swollen, 

 three-grooved. Capsule apple-green and with 

 regularly convex carpels when maturing, 2 or 

 7.\ inches long and brown when ripe, seeds 

 glossy. Coast plain of the south-eastern Atlan- 

 tic region, from Florida to South Carolina, ex- 

 tending back to north-western Georgia, west- 

 central North Carolina, Alabama, and the Gulf 

 coast of Mississippi. 



Varieties : variegata, leaves margined and 

 striped with shadesof whiteand yellow; agar- 

 den sport, the colour extremes of which deserve 

 distinctive horticultural names : patens, leaves 

 rather rigidly spreading, half to three-quarter 

 inch wide, gradually attenuate to a sharp point; 

 north-western to south-eastern Georgia : brac- 

 teata, very large with elongated leaves, the outer 

 recurved, large foliaceous scape bracts, more 

 frequently puberulent, panicle sometimes 15 

 feet high, and more attenuate petals. Capsule 

 narrowly oblong, mucronate-beaked. About 

 Charleston and adjacent Georgia coast, where 

 sometimes seen in cultivation ; — simulates in 

 aspect or bract characters forms of Y. Jiaccida : 

 coficava, general characters of the type, but with 

 very plicate abruptly acute or obtuse leaves, 

 deeply concave and spathulately enlarged to a 

 widthof4 inches; — Charleston to below Savan- 

 nah, and intervening coast region : media,\eaves 

 thinner, the outer gradually more attenuate 

 and recurved, the inner broadly lanceolate, the 

 marginal threads straighter ; — a garden form, 

 passing towards T. Jiaccida glaucescens and T. 

 Louisianensis, and probably hybridized with the 

 former. 



T. Jiaccida (Haworth). — Acaulescent, ces- 

 pitose. Leaves thin, flexible, the outer almost 

 always recurved, half to 4 inches wide, elon- 

 gated, lanceolate, very gradually long attenu- 



