518 CXXXI. CONIFERiE. Taxos. 



and durable. It is used for fences, aqueducts, tubs and pails, and in the manu- 

 facture of drawing pencils. April, May. , , . ^ .:,:,, , 

 l3 proitrata. Lm$. ovate, submucronate, glandular m the middle, appressed; 

 berries tubercular ; st. prostrate, creeping.— A shrub, on gravely shores, with 

 creeping branches 4 — 81' long. 



Tribe 3. TAXITVE^. 

 Fertile flowers solitary, terminal, consisting of a naked ovule maturing into a 



kind of drupe. 



6. TAXUS. 



Gr. ra^ov, an arrow ; arrows were formerly poisoned with the juice of the yew tree. 



Flowers cT9 or c? , surrounded with numerous scales, c? Stamens 

 8 — 10, monadelphous ; anthers peltate. 6 — 8-celled, cells dehiscent 

 beneath. 9 solitary, consisting of a single ovule, becoming in fruit a 

 fleshy, 1 -seeded drupe. — Trees or shrubs, with evergreen, linear, alter- 

 nate leaves. 



T. Canadensis. Dwarf Yeio. Ground Hemlock. 



Lvs. linear, mucronate, 2-ranked, revolute on the margin ; sterile receptct- 

 cles globose. — A small, evergreen shrub, with the general aspect of a dwarf 

 hemlock spruce {Pimis Canadensis). It grows on thin, rocky soils in shady 

 places, 2— 3f long, Can. to Penn. and Ky. Leaves nearly an inch long, ar- 

 ranged in 2 opposite rows, on the sides of the branchlets. Staminate flowers in 

 small, roundish, axillary heads. Drupes oval, concave or open at the summit, 

 red and juicy when mature. May. 



