Yucca
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Yucca. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Adams needle; a liliaceous genus doubtfully placed under Tulipeæ. Evergreen shrubs, their stem tending to arborescence, crowned by a circle of linear, lanceolate, rigid leaves, from the center of which rises a large panicle of snow-white, whitish-green, or cream colored flowers. Perianth bell-shaped, its segments without nectaries; stamens clavate, style wanting, fruit capsular, YUCCA hexagonal, with three cells and numerous flat seeds. From the hotter parts of America. Y. gloriosa, common Adam's needle, has an upright stem, a panicle of flowers three feet long, and a total height in America of 10 or 12 feet, though the cultivated plant in Great Britain is very much smaller. It is a native of the United States from Carolina to Mexico and Texas. Its fruit is purgative; its stem yields starch and also a fiber well adapted for paper making. Y. angustifolia and Y. filamentosa have also fibers which may be similarly used. The last-named species, called the silk grass, has panicles of pendulous cream-colored flowers. It grows in British gardens, blossoming in the autumn.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
yuk'ka, plants of the lily family native to the arid region of the United States and Mexico. There are twenty varieties. The chief species goes by a number of common names as Adam's needle, bear grass, silk grass, and thready yucca. This yucca has long, narrow, spiny, pointed leaves growing in a tuft from which one or more erect flower stalks rise, each carrying a fine panicle of usually creamy flowers. Whipple's Yucca is a magnificent flowering plant in south California. The tree yucca attains a height of fifteen to twenty feet in the Mojave region. Another kind is known as Spanish bayonet . It has a shocky head of bayonet-shaped leaves on the summit of a palm-like trunk. The leaves of all species are more or less valuable for fiber. The family is almost as interesting as the cactus family.