The Garden Magazine, July, 1920 
327 
goes down she comes forth, and then you will see her flitting 
swiftly from plant to plant and flower to flower — busy at work 
most of the time inside the flower. 
Her real activity begins soon after dark, and consists at 
first in collecting a load of pollen. Entering a flower she 
runs to the top of one of the stamens and, bending her head 
down over the anther and stretching her jaws — which are 
wonderfully modified for the purpose — to the fullest extent 
she scrapes a mass of pollen together with her palpi or feelers. 
After gatheringa sufficient sup- 
ply she shapes it into a pellet 
much larger than her head and 
then setsofftoanother blossom. 
Here she takes a favorable po- 
sition and, after resting motion- 
less for a short time, plunges 
her lance-like ovipositor into 
the soft tissue of the flower’s 
pistil, and conducts her first 
egg to its destination. Then 
mark you what follows! 
No sooner is the ovipositor 
withdrawn than she runs up 
the pistil, thrusts the pollen 
pellet into the stigmatic fun- 
nel or cavity, and rams it 
down with a to-and-fro motion 
of her head. If, as the case 
may be, another egg is depos- 
ited, the same fresh act of polli- 
nation is performed; but on 
each occasion a different notch 
of the style is selected, and thus 
a supply is ensured for the 
ovules in each carpel. How 
perfectly this little creature 
does its work may be gathered 
from the fact that artificial at- 
tempts to cross-fertilize the 
Yucca by means of brush- 
pollinationare rarely successful. 
T HE next step in this won- 
derful process happens in 
about a week when the larvae 
hatches, and at first appears to 
live on the degenerated and 
swollen ovules; but finally it 
enters one that is developing. 
In this state it undergoes three 
different moults, its color 
meanwhile changing from 
translucent white to a rosy 
hue; and with the ripening of 
the seeds, it attains its matur- 
ity. Then as the fruits are 
hardening— and the seeds are 
already colored — the maggot 
bores a passageway outward 
through the pod, makes its 
way to earth, and tunnelling 
several inches below the sur- 
face, spins around itself in its 
underground fastness a tough silken cocoon intermixed with soil. 
In this it remains during the autumn, winter, and spring months, 
and only emerges in the chrysalis state a few days before the 
blooming of Yucca filamentosa or Y. flaccida. This is too late 
for the bloom of Y. glauca however and too early for Y. gloriosa, 
consequently these rarely bear fruit when in cultivation. 
The chrysalis is armed with spines on its head and back by 
means of which it works its way to the surface, and in due time 
comes forth a perfect insect to live its life above ground; and, 
in conjunction with some chosen companion of the other sex, 
to carry on in its generation the useful work which its race have 
carried on before it for no one knows how many ages. 
T H E subject of insect-pollination is familiar enough, of course 
yet this fertilization of the Yucca-plant is so unique and 
interesting that it never loses its charm, and to observe the 
Yucca moth as she proceeds 
in orderly fashion to carry out 
her appointed task is an always 
new sensation. She knows so 
exactly what she is about, and 
goes about it so directly, con- 
veying a sense of importance 
— of great things in the wind. 
And rightly of course. She has 
indeed no time for idle flittings ! 
For not only her own offspring 
—her race — are dependent 
upon her careful provisioning, 
but so is the plant. 
The male is there also, but 
he spends his time flying lei- 
surely around from one flower 
to another — a desultory con- 
sort, approving doubtless, ad- 
miring and complimenting per- 
haps, and sensibly not interfer- 
ing. Of the fact that she acts 
as foster mother to the plant in 
order to insure a proper supply 
of food for her offspring, which 
as larvae feed on its develop- 
ing, tender seeds, she is pre- 
sumably unaware. But it is a 
circumstance that it hardly 
seems possible could have 
ome about purely by chance. 
Many plants are of similar 
interest if we study their pecu- 
liarities and the hosts that they 
entertain, but undeniably the 
Yuccas furnish one of the most 
interesting and wonderful phe- 
nomena of the plant world. 
And they are moreover as beau- 
tiful as they are wonderful 
when their tall bloom stalk is 
loaded with the great creamy- 
white flowers. They are an 
addition to any garden, and 
should be more plentifully 
planted than they are for every 
garden has space for a few. 
My own garden boasts over 
sixty large plants and more 
coming; and they are a per- 
fect delight to me! Give 
them evergreen background 
or else abundant shrubbery 
behind them — something to 
suit their bold, tropical character — and they will yield more 
on the investment than anything else I know of. All are not 
hardy where frost is severe, to be sure; but (named in their 
order of flowering) Y. glauca, filamentosa, flaccida, baccata, 
recurvifolia and gloriosa are. And as they will grow well 
practically anywhere, being natives of the arid southwest, they 
offer no perplexing difficulties of culture. 
GARDEN USE OF THE YUCCA IS NOT RESTRICTED 
Practically every garden has some place or places for this startlingly 
bold and lovely thing, for it is as suitable for mingling with shrub- 
bery as it is for a border of perennials — perhaps more, indeed 
