YUCCA AND AGAVE 
The following addition to the Catalogue of the plants of Nevada and Utah is from Dr. George 
Engelma nA is a result of his recent study of our hitherto ill-defined and little Understood species of 
these genera. 
YUCCA, L. ‘ 
Perianth cup-shaped, of six (whitish) petal-like lance-oval acutish leaves, withering-persistent, 
longer than the six club-shaped .stamens, Stigmas 3, more or less united. Pod oblong or cylindrical, 
somewhat 6-sided, 3-celled, the cells incompletely 2-celled by a partition from the back. Seeds very 
numerous, flat, horizontal, in 6 rows, black, with the’ linear straight or curved embryo diagonal, as long 
as the albumen—Stems woody, fibrous, very short or rising into thick columnar palm-like simple or 
branching trunks, bearing persistent rigid linear or lance-linear mostly sharp-pointed leaves, with smooth, 
rough, or filamentose edges, and terminated by an ample compound panicle (or rarely a spike) of showy 
pendulous flowers, opening wide in the evening and half-closed in the morning. 
§ 1. EU YUCCA. Filaments club-shaped, obtuse, papillose-pubescent, mostly shorter than the pistil, 
often spreading or recurved; anthers oblong or sagittate ; ovary prismatic or subcylindrie, obtuse 
or narrowed into a sort of style ; stigmas elongated, bi-lobed, papillose. 
* Sarcocarpa. Pendulous fruit fleshy and indehiscent; thick seeds somewhat rugose, with deeply lobed 
(ruminated) albumen, 
1. Y. baccata, Torr. - Bot. Mex. Bound, 221. Stems none, or short, or several feet high; leaves very 
thick and rigid, lance-linear, narrowed above the broad base, concave, terminating in a stout spine, with 
very coarse marginal fibres ; flowers panicled ; petals rhombic-ovate (1 long) or linear-lanceolate, 
(sometimes over 3' long;) ovary attenuate into a style; stigmas short; fruit ovate or cylindric, 
long-rostrate.—From New Mexico and S. Colorado, through S. Utah, to Arizona, California and Mexico. 
Northward a low plant, it becomes a tree farther south; leaves 1^-2° long, lj-2 7 wide. The edible sweet 
fruit are often called “ Dates f seeds variable in size 1 * usually the largest in the genus, 5-0" wide, 1J-1|-" 
thick. 
* * Clistocarpa. Fruit indehiscent, at last dry; seeds thickish, smooth, with the albumen entire. 
2. Y. brevifolia, Eng. (Y* Draconis , yar. arborescens, Torr. Bot. Whipp., Pac. B. B. Surv. 4. 147.) 
Tree-like, at last much branched; the short narrow leaves crowded at the end of the branches, thick, 
very rigid, stout and sharp-pointed, not narrowed above the broad base, serrulate on the margin ; panicle 
sessile at the end of the branches; fruit large, 4'long, ovate, pointed.—Deserts of S. Utah, through 
Arizona, to S. E. California where it forms entire forests on the desert plateaus at 2-4,000 feet altitude. 
Often 20-30° high and 1-2° in diameter, with a thick rough bark; leaves 4-6' or in younger specimens 
10-12' long, f-i' wide, stiffer and stouter pointed than any other in the genus. The flower when known 
may make it necessary to remove it from § Euyucca. 
* * * Chcenocarpa. Erect fruit dry, septicidally 3-valved from the apex, the valves at last again 
divided at tip ; seed very thin, smooth, with an entire albumen. 
3. Y. a ng ustifolia, Pursh. Stems none or short; leaves narrowly linear, scarcely narrowed above 
the broad base, rigid, spiny-pointed, nearly flat aboYe, convex below, with very slender marginal fibres, 
1|—2^° long; flowers spiked; petals broad-ovate, li-lf' long ; stigmas half as long as the ovary* sessile, 
erect; capsule cylindric-ovate, thick, obtuse, short-pointed; seed large, (5-7" in diameter,) with a wide 
margin. 
Yar. (3. radiosa, Eng. Stems several feet high; flowers in large panicles; petals narrow lanceolate, 
H-ir long. 
Western plains to Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and into Utah; the variety in Central Arizona and 
northward to the borders of Utah, A very variable plant, which eastward toward the Mississippi and 
the Gulf has broader, shorter, and more flaccid leaves, ( Y. stricta, Sims ?,) but is always recognized by the 
thick never constricted obtuse capsule and the large broad-margined seed, 5-7" wide. Both forms here 
, o 'Vonnik ‘S 
wu. 
