316 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



PROFESSOR TRELEASE ON 

 YUCCA. 



[Continued from page 286.) 



T. elephantipes (Regel). — Usually with se- 

 veral trunks from a swollen base similar to 

 that of Nolina, rough barked in age. At length 

 a large tree 25 or 30 feet high, compactly 

 branched above. Leaves rigidly spreading, clear 

 green, glossy, plane or a little plicate, with soft 

 green tip, 1 to 3 feet long and 2 to 3 inches 

 wide, scabrid-margined and sometimes a little 

 roughened on the dorsal ridges. Inflorescence 

 panicled close to the leaves, glabrous. Flowers 

 white or creamy: style short, oblong. Fruit 

 oblong-ovoid: seeds nearly circular. Central 

 America, where it is universally cultivated, 

 flowering from February to April, and com- 

 mon elsewhere in gardens; but the exact place 

 of its nativity remains to be discovered. I find 

 no material showing the native home of Y. ele- 

 phantipes, but it appears to be in the eastern 

 mountains of Mexico, where Schiede reported 

 it as spontaneous. Though cultivated every- 

 where in the interior as a hedge or dooryard 

 plant, it is not wild, as far as known, in Guate- 

 mala, nor in Honduras, and a gentleman who 

 has travelled extensively in Salvador reports it 

 as occurring in that republic only in cultiva- 

 tion. Doubtful reports locate it in the mining 

 region of Honduras, and near the Atlantic 

 coast about Bluefields, Nicaragua. In foliage 

 it is much like T. Draconis, the flowers of 

 which, however, are different. It is probably 

 this species which occurs, in small specimens, 

 in the gardens of Belize, where the poetic ne- 

 groes and Caribscall it" May-pole." Through- 

 out Guatemala and Honduras this tree is known 

 as " Izote," and while it is chiefly cultivated as 

 a poor hedge plant, the flowers are prized as a 

 vegetable and sold in the towns, the method of 

 preparing them being to fry them with eggs. 

 No use appears to be made of the leaf-fibre, 

 other cordage materials being abundant and 

 more easily worked. 



Y. Treculeana (Carriere). — A simple or 

 loosely few-branched tree, usually under 1 5 feet 

 high. Leaves thick and rigid, very concave, 

 blue-green, shagreen-roughened, pungent, 3 to 

 4 feet long and 1 to 2 inches wide, brown mar- 

 gined, entire or irregularly denticulate, soon 

 becoming sparingly and finely filiferous. In- 



florescence usually short-stalked, glabrous with 

 large bracts below. Flowers white, occasionally 

 tinged with purple ; style slightly contracted, 

 short ; stamens quickly hooked. Fruit oblong; 

 south central Texas, southwards to Tampico. 

 A distinct form of the species — which appears 

 to be the " scattered palm " of the Mexicans — 

 is known as canaliculata, being the broader- 

 leaved plant of the coast region and foot hills 

 from Texas to Mexico. 



T. Schottii (Engelmann). — Arborescent, 

 rarely over 10 or 12 feet high, simple or few 

 branched above. Leaves blue-green, smooth, 

 rather rigidly divergent, thin, concave, pun- 

 gent, 1 to i-| inches wide, very finely and often 

 sparingly filiferous. Inflorescence densely pani- 

 cled close to the leaves, very tomentose or rarely 

 nearly glabrous. Flowers sub-globose. Fruit 

 oblong, mostly large. Southern Arizona, into 

 the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Flowering in 

 late summer. This Yucca becomes a small tree, 

 most frequently unbranched, 6 to 8 feet high, 

 and especially marked among the Yuccas of the 

 region by the bluish-green colour and thinness 

 of its smooth, brown-margined leaves. Ja/i- 

 scensis is a stout large-branched variety, with 

 leaves sometimes very large. Is otherwise 

 scarcely distinguishable from the type, and, 

 like it, blooming in late summer or autumn. 

 Mexico, frequent in hedges but of uncertain 

 spontaneous range. 



T. brevifolia (Schott). — Shortly caulescent, 

 I scarcely reaching a height of 6 feet, mostly ces- 

 pitose. Leaves green, smooth, rigidly diver- 

 gent, often falcate, thick, plano-convex, very 

 pungent, 1 to 2 feet long, ^ to 1 inch wide, the 

 margin freely filiferous. Inflorescence panicled 

 close above the leaves, glabrous. Flowers appa- 

 rently rather small, with tapering style. Fruit 

 baccate, large. About Nogales, Arizona, on the 

 Santa Crux river, and in the rugged mountains 

 west of that city ; flowers in May. The leaves 

 vary much, particularly in width. 



T. australis (Engelmann) . — A large, thick, 

 and rough-stemmed tree, at length much 

 branched. Leaves rigidly spreading, pungent- 

 ly stout pointed, green, usually about 1 foot 

 long and 1 inch wide, but occasionally of double 

 these dimensions, thick, piano or concave- 

 convex, smooth or exceptionally a little sca- 

 brid on the dorsal angles, somewhat sparingly 

 rather coarsely filiferous. Inflorescence on an 



