664 Obdeb 128.— TAXACEvE. 



ous. — Found throughout the U. S., but chiefly in the maritime parts, growing in 

 dry, rocky places. It is a tree of middle size, sending out numerous, horizontal 

 branches. Leaves dark green, the younger ones small, ovate acute, scale-liko, 

 overlying each other in 4 rows, upon the subdivided branchlets; the oldtr onea 

 6" long. Flowers inconspicuous, the staminate in oblong, terminal amenta, 3" 

 long; the fertile on separate trees, producing small, bluish berries covered with a 

 white powder. Wood reddish, very light, durable, used in making drawing pen- 

 cils, etc. Apr., May. 



/3. prostrata. Lvs. ovate, submucronate, glandular in the middle, appressed ; 

 berries tubercular ; st. prostrate, creoping. — A shrub, on gravelly shores, wife 

 creeping branches 4 — 8f long. 



Order CXXVIII. TAXACE.E. Yews. 



Trees or shrubs, with narrow, parallel-veined or broad fork-veined loaves, and the 

 flowers diclinous, achlamydoous, surrounded with imbricated bracts. $ Flowers 

 several together, each consisting of ono or several coherent anthers. 5 Floivers 

 solitary or clustered, each consisting of a single naked ovule, terminal or axillary. 

 Fruit a solitary seed usually surrounded at base by a fleshy cupule. Fig. 421. 



Genera 9, species 50, generally natives of the- temperate, regions. 



1. TAX'US, Tourn. Yew. (Gr. rdijov, an arrow; arrows wer« 

 formerly poisoned with the juice of the Yew tree.) Flowers $ $ er 

 8 , axillary, surrounded with numerous scales. $ Aments globular, 

 composed of 8 to 10 stamens; anthers peltate, 6 to 8-celled, cells do- 

 hiscent beneath. ? Flowers solitary, consisting of a single ovule, bo- 

 coming in fruit a seed nearly enclosed in a pulpy cupule. — Trees or 

 shrubs, with evergreen, linear, alternate lvs. 



1. T. Canadensis L. Dwarf Yew. Ground Hemlock. (Fig. 42 I.) Shrub 

 low or prostrate; lvs. linear, mucronate, 2-ranked, revoluto on the margin; sterile 

 ament globous ; drupes ckpressed-glolous, open at top — A small evergreen shrub 

 with the general aspect cf a dwarf hemlock spruce (Piuus Canadensis). It grows 

 on thin rocky soils in shady places, 2 to 3f high, Can. to Penn. and Ky. Lvs. 

 nearly an inch long, arranged in 2 opposite rows on the sides of the branchlets. 

 Staminato flowers in t mall, roundish, axillary heads. Drupes coralline-red, con- 

 cave or open at tho summit, displaying the top of tho black seed. May. 

 2 T. baccata L. English Yew. Tree of low stature, attaining a great size ; 

 lvs. linear and spaiidate-linear, imbricated all around the young branchlets, finally 

 spreading and distichous; fr. oblong-oval or somewhat bell-shaped, open at tho 

 top. — Trees attaining great ago in England, with short, huge trunks and wide- 

 spread branches, f 



2. TORREYA, Arnott. (Dedicated to Prof. John Torrey, of New 

 York.) — Flowers 8 . — 6 Aments oblong, many-ilowered, bracts at base 

 imbricated in 4 rows; stamen a pedicellate scale, bearing several an- 

 ther cells at base. $ Ament ovoid, 1-flowered, consisting of a solitary 

 ovule surrounded with bracts ; fruit oblong-ovate, a nut-like seed en- 

 closed in a thick, fibro-fleshy testa. — Small evergreen trees, with spread- 

 ing branches and 2-ranked, linear lvs. 



T. taxifolia Am. — Along tho Chattahoochee, Mid. Fla., and cultivated at Quincy 

 (by Judge Dupont). Tree 15 to 30f high. Branches ramifying distichousiy and 

 horizontally. Lvs. dark green, shining, very acute, mucronate-pungent, margins 

 revolute, 18" long. Drupe near 1' long, with a brittle epicarp. 



3. SALISBU N RIA adiantifolia Smith, is occasionally seen in 

 gardens and shrubberies, called Jinr/ko, in Japan. It is remarkably 

 distinguished by its broad, fan-shaped, fork-veined petiolatc lvs. It be- 

 comes a tree 40 to 80f in height, f Japan. 



