LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
201 
merits grow as long hairs from the skin of the 
seed. If an unripe capsule be opened, it will be 
found full of the white cotton, but saturated with 
moisture, much compressed, and possessing little 
elasticity. When ripe the capsule opens, by the 
separation of the four sutures at the vertex, when 
the snowy-white cotton speedily dries, and by its 
elasticity projects till it forms a mass nearly as 
large as one’s fist, just as it appears when it comes 
to the manufacturer. 
A not unfrequent plant in our gardens is the 
Adam’s Needle {Yucca aloifolia)^ which is, about 
this season, crowned with its magnificent spike of 
large, white, lily-like flowers, very much crowded. 
The leaves of this plant are lanceolate, stiff and 
hard, terminating in a point as sharp as a needle, 
and as they radiate in every direction, the lowest 
pointing downwards, the topmost ones upwards, 
and the middle ones standing out horizontally, it 
is next to impossible to get one’s hand to the 
trunk, or rather stipe, without being wounded. 
The earlier leaves in succession decay to their 
bases, which are left sheathing the stem, in the 
same manner as in the palms. Whether in bloom 
or not, it is a highly ornamental plant. I have 
no doubt it is a native, though I have not had the 
good fortune to find it wild ; but its congener, the 
Bear’s Grass {Yucca filamcntosa) ^ is not uncom- 
mon by the sides of little streams, and in shady 
places. It differs from the preceding, in the stem 
being altogether undeveloped, the leaves being 
more broadly lanceolate, and having their margins 
furnished with contorted filaments ; these are the 
outermost fibres of the leaf, which detach them- 
selves for the length of an inch or two, and curl 
