26 ^ PINACEAE 



toward the ends and are clothed with linear, sharply pointed, 

 green leaves one-third to 1 inch long by usually less than i/g 

 inch wide. These leaves, which are keeled on both faces, appear 

 to be disposed in two rows, or ranks, along the twigs but in 

 reality they are in spirals, and the twisting of their petioles ar- 

 ranges them in rows to face the light. 



Flowers, which appear in April, are borne in leaf axils on 

 year old branches. The pistillate flowers develop first into shal- 

 low, scaly cups, which by September are transformed into oval, 

 red, berry-like structures one-third inch long, each with a 

 bony seed, or nutlet, buried in its coral-red, jelly-like pulp. 



Distribution. — Distinctly North Am.erican, the American 

 Yew ranges from Newfoundland south to Virginia and west- 

 ward into Ohio and Manitoba, occupying in this territory the 

 same habitat as the Hemlock, for the seedling of which it 

 readily is mistaken. In Illinois, it is known to occur in the bogs 

 of Lake County, where it is associated with other unusual 

 plants in a type of habitat rare in the state, in the Apple River 

 region in Jo Daviess County, at Starved Rock, and in the 

 White Pine preserve in Ogle County. Many years ago it 

 occurred elsewhere in the state, as in Kankakee County along 

 Rock Creek and in Winnebago County, but it is no longer to 

 be found in those localities. The last collection in Kankakee 

 County was made by E. J. Hill in 1847. Certain recent records, 

 for example in Cook and Carroll counties, are apparently based 

 on specimens taken from cultivated plants. 



PINACEAE 



The Pine Family 



i 



This is a family of trees and shrubs that are generally ever- j 

 green and that bear short, awl-shaped or long, needle-like 

 leaves and produce seeds in the familiar dry cones or in fleshy, j 

 berry-like structures. It is world wide in distribution and of 

 great economic importance, both for lumber and other products 

 taken from the coniferous forests of the mountainous regions 

 and coastal plains and for the decorative value of its many 

 ornamental tree and shrub species. 



Although it is represented in North America, in both tree and 

 shrub form, by more than a dozen native genera, only one 

 shrubby species is native in Illinois. 



