Spec. Char., &c. With a stem. Leaves linear-. lanceolate, very stiff; elongated at the apex. Flower-stem branched at the base; branches simple. Flowers orbiculate, bell-shaped. (Sims.) The leaves are very long, straight, and tapering to a long point, with a very few scattered threads on the margin. They are of a deep green, edged with yellow. The flowers are globular, greenish, with a purplish tinge, and large. The flower-stem is about 4 ft. or 5 ft. high, growing very upright, and branching at the base. It was found in Carolina by Lyon, and introduced about 1817. 6. Y. RECURVIFOLIA Salisb. The recurved-leaved Yucca. Identification. Salisb. in Parad. Lond., 31.; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 1. p. 228. Synonyme. Y. recúrva Hort. Spec. Char., &c. With a stem. Leaves linear-lanceolate; green, recurved, deflexed, slightly thready on the margin. Petals broad in the interior. (Salisb.) Stem about 3 ft. high. Flowers a greenish yellow, with a tinge of purple. Found on the sandy shores of Georgia by Le Comte; flowering in July and August. Introduced in 1794. 7. Y. FILAMENTO'SA. The filamentose Yucca, or thready Adam's Needle. Identification. Lin. Sp., 457.; Reich., 2. 84.; Willd., 2. p. 184.; Trew Ehret, t. 37.; Mart. Mill, No. 4.; Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2., 2. p. 291.; N. Du Ham., 3. p. 147.; Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836; Bon Jard., ed. 1837. Synonymes. Y. foliis filamentòsis Moris. Hist., 2. 419.; Y. virginiana, &c., Pluk Alm., 396. Spec. Char., &c. Leaves serrated and thready. (Willd.) The stalk and leaves are like those of I. gloriosa; but the leaves are obtuse, and have no spines at their ends. The flower-stalk rises 5 ft. or 6 ft. high, and is generally covered with flowers for most of its length. The flowers are larger and whiter than those of Y. gloriòsa, and sit close to the stalk. On the sides of the leaves are long threads, which hang down. Morison states that he saw this species bearing seeds in the garden of Mr. George Crook of Waterstock, near Oxford, in 1675; and that the capsules were 3-sided and 3-celled. It is a native of Virginia, and flowers in September and October. It is perfectly hardy. 8. Y. (F.) ANGUSTIFOLIA Pursh. The narrow-leaved Identification. Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 1. p. 227.; Nuttall Gen. Pl. Spec. Char., &c. Without a stem. Leaves long-linear, the flowers are more oblong than round, and of a greenish white, without any tinge of purple. Found by Nuttall on the banks of the Missouri; and described by Pursh, from the specimen in Nuttall's herbarium. Closely resembling Y. filamentòsa. Introduced in 1811. 9. 1. FLACCIDA Haw. The flaccid-leaved Yucca. Identification. Haw. Supp., p. 35.; Lindl. in Bot. Reg., vol. xxii., under Y. draconis. Engravings. Bot. Reg. ; and our fig. 2399. Spec. Char., &c. Leaves all very flaccid, weak, bent below the middle and recurved, very long and lanceolate, flat, concave and mucronulate at the apex, roughish; marginal filaments strong, yellowish. (Haworth Suppl., p. 35.) "A pretty and apparently distinct species, well marked by its thread-edged scabrous leaves, and pale flowers, which appear in July." Introduced from Georgia in 1819. 2399 10. Y. GLAUCE SCENS Haw. The glaucescent Yucca. Identification. Haw. Sup. Pl. Suc., p. 35.; Swt. Brit. Fl.-Gard., t. 53. Engravings. Brit. Flow.-Gard., t. 53. ; and our fig. 2400. Spec. Char., &c. Leaves linear-lanceolate, entire, concave, glancescent, straight; margin slightly filamentose. (Swt.) A stemless species, with very stiff concave leaves, of a dull glaucous colour, terminating in a sharp horny spine; margin entire, with here and there a slender white thread, slightly twisted. Flowers of a greenish white, tinged with yellow. A native of North America. Introduced by Mr. John Lyons in 1819. This plant was first given to the nurseries from High Clere, where it flowers freely every year. It has the habit of Y. filamentòsa, with larger and more numerous blossoms, and more elegant sharp-pointed foliage. (See Gard. Mag., vol. x. p. 254) HALF-HARDY CHAP. CXVII. MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS, DESERVING A PLACE FOURCROY'A longa va Karw. et Zuccar, Trans. Munich, vol. xvi. part 2. t. 48, 49. A splendid plant, brought from South America to Europe, in 1828, by the Baron Karwinski; and introduced into England by M. Francis Rauch, in 1833. A tree, with a straight cylindrical trunk, 40 ft. or 50 ft. high, and from 12 in. to 18 in. in diameter, and surmounted by a flower-stem from 36 ft. to 40 ft. high. It is found on the summit of Mount Tanga, in the province of Oaxaca in Mexico, at an elevation of 10,000 ft. above the level of the sea, growing in declivities along with oaks and arbutuses. It flowers there in May, and ripens its fruit in the following winter. Baron Karwinski mentioned to M. Rauch, in 1833, say that, where he found the plant, the ground was covered with snow and ice; so that there can be no doubt of its being hardy in the climate of London. It is of such remarkably slow growth in its native habitats, that the inhabitants it flowers only once in 400 years. Fig. 2402., reduced from Baron Karwinski's plate to a scale 1 in. to 12ft., shows the general appearance of the fullgrown plant, with its noble spike of flowers. Fig. 2401. shows the flowers of the natural size. Only seven plants were introduced, one of which was purchased by the Duke of Devonshire, and the rest sold to Messrs. Loddiges. Price five guineas each. F. gigantea Vent., Bot. Mag., t. 2250., is an agave-like plant, with leaves 7 ft. long, and a flower-stem 30 ft. high; a native of South America: introduced in 1690. It flowered in 1821, at the Earl of Powis's seat at Wallcot, Shropshire. Littæ a gemmiflora Brig.; Aga've gemmiflora Ker; Bonapartea júncea Haw., Hort. Journ. Roy. Inst., iii. t. 1.; and our fig. 2403.; is a native of Peru, introduced in 1800; and, though commonly kept in the green-house, it is probably as hardy as some kinds of Yucca. The plant of which our figure is a portrait, with a single flower of the natural size, flowered in the conservatory of Knight's Exotic Nursery, King's Road, in 1826. The flower-stem first appeared about the 2403 middle of August; and, for about six weeks, it made the rapid growth of about 4 in. every 24 hours. After this, its growth gradually became slower, till, on the 11th of November, the spike was 14 ft. high, as shown in the figure, and bearing 846 flowers in various stages of progress. The flowers were green without, and of a greenish yellow within. A specimen in the conservatory of the geographical establishment of Van der Maelen at Brussels flowered in December, 1837. The height of the flower-stem was 30 ft., and it was furnished with from 1200 to 1500 flowers. The same plant had flowered some years previously, so that this second flower-stem in all probability proceeded from a sucker. (L'E'cho du Monde Savant, Dec. 29., 1837.) The plant has ripened seeds freely in the conservatory of M. SoulangeBodin, with whom it flowered in 1825, and who had, in the following year, 1000 plants raised from its seeds. Agave americana, the American Aloe, a native of the tropical part of South America, on mountains 900 ft. above the level of the sea. "Thence," says Sir W. J. Hooker, "it has been introduced into the warmer parts of the old world, where fences are made of it, and a fermented liquor called pulque; and fibres for thread, and a substance analogous to soap, have also been extracted. It was, by the late Mr. Yates, planted in his garden at Saltcombe Bay, in Devonshire, in 1804, when only 3 years old, and but 6 in. high. It was placed in the open air, without any protection, save what was afforded by the neighbouring hills. In the year 1820, it had attained a height of 11 ft., and covered a space of ground the diameter of which was 16 ft., when it threw up a flower-stem, which grew for 6 weeks at the rate of 3 in. a day, and in September measured 27 ft. in height, its branches being loaded with 16,000 blossoms; thus contradicting the generally received opinion, that the American aloe flowers only once in 100 years." (M'Culloch's Statistics of the British Empire, i. p. 126.) Phormium tenax, the New Zealand Flax, is also quite hardy both in the south of England and Ireland, and is technically a shrub. 8A 2 |