328 TORPxEYA ; OR 



the tree emit a very disagreeable odour, when either bruised 

 or burnedj and is called by the Californian emigrants the Stink- 

 ing Yew, or Californian Nutmeg. 

 It is quite hardy. 



No. 3. ToRREYA NUCiFERA, Zuccarini, the Nut-bearing Torreya. 



CI rr -r r Thunberq, not Wallich, and 



byn. iaxus nuciiera, < i.i, V i- -i. 



•' ' l_ other Indian writers. 



„ Caryotaxus nucifera, Zuccarini. 



„ Podocarpus nucifera, Hort. 



„ „ Coreana, Van Houtte. 



Leaves, linear, rounded at the base, and somewhat two-rowed 

 on the branchlets, but more or less distant, and scattered round 

 the leading shoots, quite straight, flat, leathery, and tapering to 

 rather a long, spiny acute point, mostly curved downwards ; 

 from one to one inch and three-quarters long, and one line and 

 a half broad, on very short footstalks, of a deep glossy green, 

 and convex on both sides of the mid-rib, which is a little sunk 

 on the upper surface, and glaucous white below, except on the 

 centre nerve and margins, which are of a deep glossy green, and 

 rather elevated ; buds, furnished with persistent, extended, 

 acute-pointed scales. Branches, numerous, either in whorls, 

 alternate, or scattered along the stem, spread out, horizontal, 

 and covered with scaly bark ; branchlets, two-rowed, spreading, 

 and rather short. Male catkins, oval, or cylindrical, female 

 flowers, in j)airs, or in threes in close heads on short peduncles. 

 Fruit, the size of a large nut, three-quarters of an inch long, 

 and half an inch broad, oval, or ovate-oblong, largest at the 

 base, slightly tapering to a small point at the apex, and covered 

 with a firm, fleshy, thin, green tissue, very smooth, and glossy 

 outside. Seed, oval, with a hard bony shell. Seed-leaves, in 

 twos. 



A small tree, growing from twenty to thirty feet high on 

 the mountains on the Islands of Niphon and Sikok, in Japan, 

 but cultivated all over Japan, where an oil is made from the 

 kernels of the nuts, which is said to be used for culinary pur- 

 poses, though the kernel itself is too astringent to be eaten, 



