YEW FAMILY. 61 
Family 2, TAXACEAE Lindl. Nat. Syst. Ed. 2, 316. 1836. 
Trees or shrubs, resin-bearing except 7axrus. Leaves evergreen or decid- 
uous, linear, or in several exotic genera broad or sometimes fan-shaped, the 
pollen-sacs and ovules borne in separate clusters or solitary. Perianth wanting. 
Stamens much as in the Pinaceae. Ovules with either one or two integuments; 
when two, the outer one fleshy, when only one, its outer part fleshy. Fruit 
drupe-like or rarely a cone. 
About 8 genera and 75 species, of wide geographic distribution, most numerous in the southern 
hemisphere. The Maiden. hair Tree, Ginkgo biloba, of China and Japan, with fan-shaped leaves, 
is an interesting member of the group, now much planted for ornament. 
Te LAU, Ty, Spe Lie doson. 756+ 
Evergreen trees or shrubs, with spirally arranged short-petioled linear flat mucronate 
leaves, spreading so as to appear 2-ranked, and axillary and solitary, sessile or subsessile 
very small aments; staminate aments consisting of a few scaly bracts and 5-8 stamens, their 
filaments united to the middle; anthers 4-6-celled. Ovules solitary, axillary, erect, sub- 
tended by a fleshy, annular disk, which is bracted at the base. Fruit consisting of the fleshy 
disk which becomes cup-shaped, red, and nearly encloses the bony seed. [Name ancient. ] 
About 6 species, natives of the north temperate zone. Besides the following, another occurs in 
Florida, one in Mexico and one on the Pacific Coast. 
1. Taxus minor (Michx.) Britton. American Yew. Ground Hemlock. 
Bigs 135) 
Taxus baccata var. minor Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 
2: 245. 1803. 
Taxus Canadensis Willd. Sp. Pl. 4: 856. 1806. 
Taxus minor Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, 5: 10. 
1893. 
A low straggling shrub, seldom over 5° 
high. Leaves dark green on both sides, nar- 
rowly linear, mucronate at the apex, nar- 
rowed at the base, 6’’-10’’ long, nearly 1// 
wide, persistent on the twigs in drying; the 
staminate aments globose, 1’’ long, usually 
numerous; ovules usually few; fruit red and 
pulpy, resinous, oblong, nearly 3’’ high, the 
top of the seed not covered by the fleshy 
integument. 
In woods, Newfoundland to Manitoba, south 
to New Jersey, in the Alleghenies to Virginia, 
and to Minnesota and Iowa. Ascends to 2500 
ft. in the Adirondacks. April-May. Very dif- 
ferent from the European Yew, 7. bacca/a, in 
habit, the latter becoming a large forest tree, as 
does the Oregon Yew, 7. brevifolia. 
~-s>-- 
Class 2. ANGIOSPERMAE. 
Ovules (macrosporanges) enclosed in a cavity (the ovary) formed by the 
infolding and uniting of the margins of a modified rudimentary leaf (carpel), 
or of several such leaves joined together, in which the seeds are ripened. The 
pollen-grains (microspores) on alighting upon the summit of the carpel (stigma) 
germinate, sending out a pollen-tube which penetrates its tissues and reaching 
an oyule enters the orifice of the latter (micropyle), and its tip coming in 
