YUCCAS FOR ENGLISH GARDENS. 1 07 
development of younger offsets. The flower-stems are 3 to 4 feet in 
height, and bear a great number of creamy-white blossoms that are 
seen at their best on a moonlight night when the flowers are widely 
expanded. 
There are at least seven distinct varieties grown in gardens, 
besides some hybrids raised by Sprenger of Naples into which flaccida 
parentage enters. All are good if planted generously — either in 
groups among perennials in borders, as edges to shrub beds, or in 
bold masses on lawns. 
Y. filamentosa needs a well-drained southern slope in my own 
garden, but in warmer gardens grows freely in ordinary beds. A 
healthy group with stiff, wide leaves, edged with a tangle of white 
threads, is very attractive, and the flowers are in most of its forms 
larger and whiter than those of flaccida. 
There is a finely variegated form- — alas ! too tender for outdoor 
planting north of London, but which grew into fine specimens in 
Canon Ellacombe's Gloucestershire garden. 
Y. rupicola is a good species for hardiness and distinct appearance. 
The leaves are very stiff, sharp and slightly twisted, and unlike those 
of any other Yucca hardy in England in having a dark brown edging 
to the leaves formed of minute horny teeth. In summer they are 
beautifully glaucous, with tones of purplish blue here and there. The 
flower-spike is very tall for a stemless species, and the flowers so large 
that, though they are rather greenish in colour, they make a fine sight 
when fully expanded. 
Y. glauca is more often called Y. angustifolia in gardens. It is 
the Bear-grass or Soap-weed of the Rocky Mountains, and a very 
distinct and beautiful plant. The long leaves are narrow and grey, 
with conspicuously white edges that give the plant an air of xerophytic 
tenderness that its hardy constitution proves to be false, for it will 
thrive in any well-drained sunny border, forming large branching 
specimens. In middle age it forms a short-stemmed specimen that 
eventually becomes top-heavy and falls over after the manner of 
Kniphofia caulescens. The flowers are greenish and generally 
arranged in a tall simple spike. 
Yucca gloriosa is the nobler of the two hardy caulescent species, 
but more tender than Y. recurvifolia. It is a good plant for 
the small front gardens of town houses, finding there the pro- 
tection it craves from winds and stagnant moisture. In southern 
gardens it will grow into noble specimens with stems 6 feet or more 
in height, and when crowned with its large flower-spikes is a fine sight. 
Unfortunately, the spikes are generally produced so late in autumn 
that it is only in favoured districts that they escape frost long enough 
to flower. Even in its native localities it flowers so late that it seldom 
bears seed, the Pronuba moths being no longer on the wing. If a 
spike is produced out of season, and while the moths that fertilize 
Y. aloifolia are still about, it has been observed to set seed. 
Many varieties are known in gardens, but the best are those with 
