Part 18

Leaves 30′—36′ in diameter, thin, light green, divided only to the middle, the divisions of the primary lobes 3½′—9′ long; petioles thin, gradually tapering from the base, 40′—60′ in length, armed throughout with stout straight or incurved teeth. Flowers: spadix 4°—6° long; flowers ⅛′—⅙′ long, with a light chestnut-brown calyx and a pale yellow-green corolla. Fruit ¼′ in diameter.

A tree with numerous stems, in Florida sometimes 10 metres high, forming great thickets.

Distribution. Dade County, Florida, from the rear of Madeira Hummock to Cape Sable, in swamps of fresh or brackish water at some distance from the coast; also in Cuba and on the Bahamas.

2. Acœlorraphe arborescens Becc.

_Serenoa arborescens_ Sarg.

Leaves about 2° in diameter, light yellow-green on the upper surface, blue-green or glaucescent on the lower surface, divided nearly to the base into numerous lobes slightly thickened at the pale yellow midribs and margins; petioles 18′—24′ long, armed, except toward the apex, with stout flattened curved orange-colored teeth. Flowers: spadix 3°—4° long, with a slender much-flattened stalk, panicled lower branches 18′—20′ in length, and 6—8 thick firm pale green conspicuously ribbed spathes dilated at apex into a narrow border; flowers with a light chestnut-brown calyx and a pale yellow-green corolla. Fruit globose, ⅓′ in diameter; seed somewhat flattened below, with a pale vertical mark on the lower side, and a hilum joined to the micropyle by a pale band.

A tree, from 30°—40° high, with 1 or several clustered erect inclining or occasionally semiprostrate stems 3′—4′ in diameter, covered almost to the ground by the closely clasping bases of the leaf-stalks and below with a thick pale rind.

Distribution. Low undrained soil covered for many months of every year in water from 1′—18′ deep, occasionally occupying almost exclusively areas of several acres in extent or more often scattered among Cypress-trees or Royal Palms, in the swamps and along the hummocks adjacent to the Chokoloskee River and its tributaries and at the head of East River, Whitewater Bay, in southwestern Florida.

6. ROYSTONEA Cook. Royal Palm.

Unarmed trees, with massive stems enlarged near the middle, and terminating in long slender bright green cylinders formed by the densely imbricated sheaths of the leaf-stalks. Leaves equally pinnate, with linear-lanceolate long-pointed unequally cleft plicately-folded pinnæ inserted obliquely on the upper side of the rachis, folded together at the base, with thin midribs and margins; rachis convex on the back, broad toward the base of the leaf and acute toward its apex; petioles semicylindric, gradually enlarged into thick elongated green sheaths. Spadix large, decompound, produced near the base of the green part of the stem, with long pendulous branches and 2 spathes, the outer semicylindric and as long as the spadix, the inner splitting ventrally and inclosing the branches of the spadix. Flowers monœcious, in a loose spiral, toward the base of the branch in 3-flowered clusters, with a central staminate and smaller lateral pistillate flowers, higher on the branch the staminate in 2-flowered clusters; calyx of the staminate flower of minute broadly ovate obtuse scarious sepals imbricated in the bud, much shorter than the corolla; petals nearly equal, valvate in the bud, ovate or obovate, acute, slightly united at the base, coriaceous; stamens 6, 9, or 12, with subulate filaments united below and adnate to the base of the corolla, and large ovate-sagittate anthers, the cells free below; ovary rudimentary, subglobose or 3-lobed; pistillate flowers much smaller, ovoid-conic; sepals obtuse; corolla erect, divided to the middle into acute erect lobes incurved at apex; staminodia 6, scale-like, united into a cup adnate to the corolla; ovary subglobose, obscurely 2 or 3-lobed, 2 or 3-celled, gibbous, the cells crowned with a 3-lobed stigma becoming subbasilar on the fruit; ovule ascending. Fruit a short-stalked drupe with thin crustaceous flesh. Seed oblong-reniform, marked by the conspicuous fibrous reticulate branches of the raphe radiating from the narrow basal hilum, and covered with a thin crustaceous coat; embryo minute, cylindric, lateral, in uniform albumen.

Roystonea is confined to the tropics of the New World, where two or three species occur.

The genus as here limited was named for General Roy Stone of the United States army.

1. Roystonea regia Cook. Royal Palm.

_Oreodoxa regia_ H. B. K.

Leaves 10°—12° long, closely pinnate, the pinnæ, 2½°—3° long, 1½′ wide near the base of the leaf, and gradually decreasing in size toward its apex, deep green with slender conspicuous veins, and covered below with minute pale glandular dots; petioles almost terete, concave near the base, with thin edges separating irregularly into pale fibres, and enlarged into bright green cylindrical clasping bases 8° or 9° long and more or less covered with dark chaffy scales. Flowers: spadix about 2° long, with a nearly terete stem and slightly ridged primary and secondary branches compressed above, abruptly enlarged at the base, and simple slender flexuose long-pointed flower-bearing branchlets 3′—6′ long, pendant and closely pressed against the secondary branches; flowers opening in Florida in January and February, the staminate nearly ¼′ long and rather more than twice as long as the pistillate. Fruit oblong-obovoid, full and rounded at apex, narrowed at base, violet-blue, about ½′ long, with a thin outer coat and a light red-brown inner coat, loose and fibrous on the outer surface, and closely investing the thin light brown seed.

A tree, 80°—100° high, with a trunk rising from an abruptly enlarged base, gradually tapering from the middle to the ends and often 2° in diameter, covered with light gray rind tinged with orange color, marked with dark blotches and irregularly broken into minute plates, the green upper portion 8°—10° long, and a broad head of gracefully drooping leaves. Wood of the interior of the stem spongy, pale brown, much lighter than the hard exterior rim, containing numerous dark conspicuous fibro-vascular bundles. The outer portion of the stem is made into canes, and the trunks are sometimes used for wharf-piles and in construction.

Distribution. Florida, hummocks on Rogue River twenty miles east of Caximbas Bay, on some of the Everglades Keys, Long’s Key, and formerly on the shores of Bay Biscayne near the mouth of Little River; common in the West Indies and Central America.

Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in tropical countries, and often planted to form avenues, for which its tall pale columnar stems and noble heads of graceful foliage make it valuable.

7. PSEUDOPHŒNIX H. Wendl.

A tree, with a slender stem abruptly enlarged at the base or tapering from the middle to the ends, covered with thin pale blue or nearly white rind, and conspicuously marked by the dark scars of fallen leaf-stalks. Leaves erect, abruptly pinnate, with crowded linear-lanceolate acuminate leaflets increasing in length and width from the ends to the middle of the leaf, thick and firm in texture, dark yellow-green above, pale and glaucous below; rachis convex on the lower side, concave on the upper side near the base of the leaf, with thin margins, becoming toward the apex of the leaf flat and narrowed below and acute above, marked on the sides at the base with dark gland-like excrescences; petioles short, concave above, with thin entire margins separating into slender fibres, gradually enlarged into broad thick sheaths of short brittle fibres. Spadix interfoliar, compound, pendulous, stalked, much shorter than the leaves, with spreading primary branches, stout and much flattened toward the base, slender and rounded above the middle, furnished at the base with a thickened ear-like body, slender secondary branches, short thin rigid densely flowered ultimate divisions, and compressed light green double spathes erose on their thin dark brown margins. Flowers on slender pedicels articulate by an expanded base, widely scattered on the ultimate branches of the spadix, staminate and bisexual in the same inflorescence; calyx reduced to the saucer-like rim of the thickened receptacle, undulate on the margin, the rounded angles alternating with the petals; petals 3, valvate in the bud, oblong, rounded at apex, thick conspicuously longitudinally veined, persistent; stamens 6, with short flattened nearly triangular filaments slightly united at the base into a narrow fleshy disk, and triangular cordate anthers attached at the base in a cavity on their outer face, 2-celled, the cells opening by lateral slits; styles of the perfect flower 3-lobed at the apex with obtuse appressed lobes, that of the sterile flower as long or longer than that of the perfect flower, more slender and tapering into a narrow 3-pointed apex. Fruit a stalked globose 2 or 3-lobed orange-scarlet thin-fleshed drupe marked by the lateral style and surrounded below by the withered remnants of the flower; pedicel abruptly enlarged at base, articulate from a persistent cushion-like body furnished in the centre with a minute point penetrating a cavity in the base of the pedicel. Seed subglobose, free, erect, with a basal hilum and a thin light red-brown coat marked by the pale conspicuous ascending 2 or 3-branched raphe; embryo minute, basal, in uniform horny albumen.

Pseudophœnix with a single species inhabits the keys of southern Florida, and the Bahamas.

The generic name is in allusion to a fancied resemblance to _Phœnix_, a genus of Palms.

1. Pseudophœnix vinifera Becc.

Leaves 5°—6° long, with pinnæ often 18′ long and 1′ wide near the middle of the leaf, becoming at its extremities not more than half as long and wide; petioles 6′—8′ in length. Flowers: spadix 3° long and 2½° wide. Fruit ripening in May and June, ½′—¾′ in diameter on a peduncle ¼′ long; seed ¼′ in diameter.

Distribution. Florida, east end of Elliot’s Key, and east end of Key Largo near the southern shore, here forming a grove of 200 or 300 plants; more common on the Bahamas.

Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of southern Florida.

IV. LILIACEÆ.

YUCCÆ.

Leaves, alternate, linear-lanceolate. Flowers in terminal panicles; sepals and petals nearly similar, subequal, withering-persistent; ovary with more or less deeply introduced dorsal partitions; ovules numerous, 2-ranked in each cell; embryo subulate, obliquely placed across the seed; cotyledon arched in germination.

Yuccæ as here limited consists of two American genera, Hesperaloe, with two species, low plants of Texas and Mexico, and Yucca.

1. YUCCA L.

Trees with simple or branched stems prolonged by axillary naked buds, dark thick corky bark, light fibrous wood in concentric layers, and large stout horizontal roots; or often stemless. Leaves involute in the bud, at first erect, usually becoming reflexed, abruptly narrowed above the broad thickened clasping base, usually widest near the middle, concave on the upper surface, involute toward the horny usually sharp-pointed apex, convex and often slightly keeled toward the base on the lower surface, the margins serrulate or filamentose, light or dull green. Flowers fertilized by insects and opening for a single night, on slender pedicels in 2 or 3-flowered clusters or singly at the base of the large compound panicle furnished with conspicuous leathery white or slightly colored bracts, those at the base of the pedicels thin and scarious; perianth cup-shaped, with thick ovate-lanceolate creamy white segments more or less united at base, usually furnished with small tufts of white hairs at the apex, those of the outer rank narrower, shorter, and more colored than the more delicate petal-like segments of the inner rank; stamens 6, in 2 series, free, shorter than the ovary (_as long in_ 1), white, with club-shaped fleshy filaments, obtuse and slightly 3-lobed at the apex, and cordate emarginate anthers attached on the back, the cells opening longitudinally, curling backward and expelling the large globose powdery pollen-grains; ovary oblong, 6-sided, sessile or stalked, with nectar-glands within the partitions, dull greenish white, 3-celled, gradually narrowed into a short or elongated 3-lobed ivory-white style forming a triangular stigmatic tube. Fruit oblong or oval, more or less distinctly 6-angled, 6-celled, usually beaked at the apex, baccate and indehiscent or capsular and 3-valved, the valves finally separating at the apex; pericarp of 2 coats, the outer at maturity thick, succulent and juicy, thin, dry and leathery, or thin and woody. Seeds compressed, triangular, obovoid, or obliquely ovoid or orbicular, thick, with a narrow 2-edged rim, or thin, with a wide or narrow brittle margin; seed-coat thin, black, slightly rugose or smooth; embryo in plain or rarely ruminate hard farinaceous oily albumen; cotyledon much longer than the short radicle turned toward the small oblong white hilum.

Yucca is confined to the New World and is distributed from Bermuda and the eastern Antilles, through the south Atlantic and Gulf states to Oklahoma and Arkansas, and through New Mexico and northward along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to South Dakota, westward to middle California, and southward through Arizona, Mexico, and Lower California to Central America. About thirty species with many varieties and probable hybrids are recognized. Of the species which inhabit the territory of the United States nine assume the habit and attain the size of small trees. The root-stalks of Yucca are used as a substitute for soap, and ropes, baskets, and mats are made from the tough fibres of the leaves. Many of the species are cultivated, especially in countries of scanty rainfall, for their great clusters of beautiful flowers, or in hedges to protect gardens from cattle.

The generic name is from the Carib name of the root of the Cassava.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Flower-clusters usually sessile, or short-stalked. Fruit pendulous, with thick succulent flesh; seeds thick; albumen ruminate. Segments of the perianth slightly united at the base. Panicle glabrous or puberulous. Ovary stipitate; leaves sharply toothed on their horny margins, smooth, dark green, slightly concave. 1. Y. aloifolia (C). Ovary sessile. Leaves concave, blue-green, rough on the lower surface. 2. Y. Treculeana (E). Leaves concave above the middle, light yellow-green, smooth. Style elongated. 3. Y. macrocarpa (E, H). Style short. 4. Y. mohavensis (G, H). Panicle coated with hoary tomentum; leaves concave, smooth, light yellow-green. 5. Y. Schottii (H). Segments of the perianth united below into a narrow tube; leaves flat, smooth, dark green. 6. Y. Faxoniana (E). Fruit erect or spreading, the flesh becoming thin and dry at maturity; seeds thin; albumen entire. Leaves rigid, concave above the middle, blue-green, sharply serrate. 7. Y. brevifolia (F, G). Leaves thin, flat or concave toward the apex, nearly entire, rough on the lower surface, dull or glaucous green. 8. Y. gloriosa (C). Flower-clusters long-stalked; fruit capsular, erect, finally splitting between the carpels and through their backs at the apex; seeds thin; albumen entire; leaves thin, flat, filamentose on the margins, smooth, pale yellow-green. 9. Y. elata (E, H).

1. Yucca aloifolia L. Spanish Bayonet.

Leaves 18′—32′ long, 1¼′—2½′ wide, erect, rigid, conspicuously narrowed above the light green base, widest above the middle, slightly concave on the upper surface, smooth, dark rich green, with a stiff dark red-brown tip, and horny finely and irregularly serrate margins; long-persistent. Flowers from June until August on stout pedicels, in nearly sessile glabrous or slightly pubescent panicles 18′—24′ long; perianth 1′—1½′ in length and 3′ or 4′ across when fully expanded, the segments ovate, thick and tumid toward the base, those of the outer rank rounded and often marked with purple at apex, the inner acuminate and short-pointed; stamens as long or sometimes a little longer than the light green ovary raised on a short stout stipe. Fruit ripening from August to October, elongated, ellipsoidal, hexagonal, 3′—4′ long, 1¼′—1½′ thick, light green when fully grown, and in ripening turning dark purple, the outer and inner coats forming a thick succulent mass of bitter-sweet juicy flesh, finally becoming black and drying on its stalk; seeds ¼′—⅓′ wide, about 1/16′ thick, with a thin narrow ring-like border to the rim.

A tree, occasionally 25° high, usually much smaller, with an erect or more or less inclining simple or branched trunk slightly swollen at base, and rarely more than 6′ in diameter; sometimes with numerous clustered stems. Bark near the base of the trunk thick, rough, dark brown, marked above by scars left by falling leaves.

Distribution. Sand dunes of the coast from North Carolina to eastern Louisiana; west of the Apalachicola River attaining its largest size and sometimes ranging inland through Pine-forests for thirty or forty miles; and in Yucatan (var. yucatana Trel.).

A common garden plant in all countries with a temperate climate, and long naturalized in the southern states far beyond the limits of its natural range, in some of the West Indian islands and on the Gulf coast of Mexico. Forms with leaves variously striped with white, yellow, and red or with recurving leaves are frequent in cultivation.

2. Yucca Treculeana Carr. Spanish Bayonet. Spanish Dagger.

Leaves 2½°—4° long, 2′—3¼′ wide, slightly or not at all contracted above the dark red lustrous base, concave, stiff, rigid, dark blue-green, rough on the lower surface, nearly smooth on the upper, with a short stout dark red-brown tip, and dark brown margins roughened by minute deciduous teeth and ultimately separating into slender dark fibres; persistent for many years, the dead leaves hanging closely appressed against the trunk below the terminal crown of closely imbricated living leaves. Flowers in March and April on slender pedicels, in dense many-flowered glabrous or puberulous panicles 2°—4° long and raised on short stout stalks; perianth 1′—2′ long, 2′—4′ in diameter when fully expanded, with narrow elongated ovate-lanceolate to ovate segments, ¼′ wide, acute, thin and delicate, furnished at apex with a conspicuous tuft of short pale hairs; filaments slightly papillose, about as long as the prismatic ovary gradually narrowed above and crowned by the deeply divided stigmatic lobes. Fruit ripening in the summer, 3′—4′ long, about 1′ thick, dark reddish brown or ultimately black, with thin succulent sweetish flesh; seeds about ⅛′ wide, nearly 1/16′ thick, with a narrow border to the rim.

A tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a trunk sometimes 2° in diameter and numerous stout wide-spreading branches; usually smaller and often forming broad low thickets 4°—5° tall. Bark on old trunks ¼′—½′ thick, dark red-brown and broken into thin oblong plates covered by small irregular closely appressed scales. Wood light brown, fibrous, spongy, heavy, difficult to cut and work.

Distribution. Shores of Matagorda Bay, southward through western Texas into Nuovo Leon, and through the valley of the Rio Grande to the eastern base of the mountains of western Texas; forming open stunted forests on the coast dunes at the mouth of the Rio Grande; farther from the coast often spreading into great impenetrable thickets.

Cultivated as an ornamental plant in the gardens of central and western Texas and in other southern States, and occasionally in those of southern Europe.

3. Yucca macrocarpa Coville. Spanish Dagger.

Leaves 1½°—2° long, 1′—2′ wide, gradually narrowed from the dark red lustrous base to above the middle, rigid, concave, yellow-green, rough on the lower surface and frequently also on the upper surface, with a stout elongated dark tip, and thickened margins separated into stout gray filaments. Flowers in March and April in densely flowered sessile or short-stalked glabrous or occasionally pubescent panicles; perianth usually about 2′ long, with acuminate segments, those of the outer and inner rows nearly of the same size; stamens shorter than the elongated style. Fruit 3′—4′ long, about 1½′ thick, abruptly contracted at apex into a stout point, nearly black when fully ripe, with sweet succulent flesh; seeds about ⅓′ wide, ⅛′ thick, with a narrow border to the rim.

A tree, rarely exceeding 15° in height, with a usually simple stem 6′—8′ in diameter, and often clothed to the ground with living leaves. Bark dark brown and scaly.

Distribution. Arid plains from western Texas to eastern Arizona and southward in Chihuahua.

4. Yucca mohavensis Sarg. Spanish Dagger.

Leaves 18′—20′ long, about 1½′ wide, abruptly contracted above the dark red lustrous base, gradually narrowed upward to above the middle, thin and concave except toward the slightly thickened base of the blade, dark green, smooth on both surfaces, with a stout rigid sharp-pointed tip, and entire bright red-brown margins soon separating into numerous pale filaments. Flowers from March to May on slender erect ultimately drooping pedicels 1′—1½′ long, in densely flowered sessile or short-stemmed panicles 12′—18′ in length; perianth 1′—2′ long, the segments united at the base into a short tube, thickened and hood-shaped at the apex, those of the outer rank often deeply flushed with purple, but little longer than the less prominently ribbed usually wider and thinner segments of the inner rank; stamens with more or less pilose filaments nearly as long as the short style. Fruit ripening in August and September, 3′—4′ long, about 1½′ thick, usually much constricted near the middle, abruptly contracted at apex into a short stout point, dark dull brown or nearly black, with flesh often nearly ½′ thick; seeds ⅓′ wide, rather less than ⅛′ thick, with a narrow border to the rim.

A tree, rarely exceeding 15° in height, with a trunk usually simple or occasionally furnished with short spreading branches, and 6′—8′ in diameter, usually surrounded by a cluster of shorter more or less spreading stems and often clothed to the ground with living leaves. Bark dark brown and scaly. Wood soft, spongy, light brown.

Distribution. Southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona across the Mohave Desert to the California coast, extending northward to the neighborhood of Monterey, California, and southward into northern Lower California; common and attaining its largest size on the Mohave Desert, and sometimes ascending arid mountain slopes to altitudes of 4000° above the sea.

5. Yucca Schottii Engelm. Spanish Dagger.