3. Californian "Cactus."—

In the Kew Report for 1877 reference was made (pp. 36, 37) to a paper material known under this name in commerce, the botanical identity of which however was doubtful, owing to the want of adequate materials for determination. The specimens of the stems, which are the part used in the manufacture, suggested that they might belong to a Dasylirion or Beaucarnea. The nature of the plant has now been cleared up, and it proves to be a species of the well known genus Yucca, various other representatives of which are cultivated in gardens, and the habit of which is very similar to that of the genera mentioned above. It is the Yucca brevifolia of Engelmann (notes on the genus Yucca, p. 47). In California it has been identified, page 45 but incorrectly, with the Yucca Draconis, originally described by Linnæus. The plant forms forests in the Mohave desert; the Southern Pacific Railway runs through them for several miles, and "the growth "extends south for some 300 "miles." The trees must be of great age, and should the manufacture of paper from them be commercially successful, one of the most singular pieces of vegetation will no doubt be utilised off the face of the earth.