56 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. TAXACES. 
folds penetrating the fleshy more or less deeply ruminate white albumen. Embryo axile; cotyledons 
two, semiterete, shorter than the superior radicle. 
Four species of Tumion have survived from the tertiary period, when the genus inhabited the 
Arctic Circle, and then, spreading southward, existed for a long time in Europe, whence it has now 
disappeared.’ Of existing species, one, the type of the genus, mhabits Florida, a second is widely 
scattered through the forests of western California, one occurs on the mountains of central and 
southern Japan,” and another in northern China.* 
Tumion produces handsome light-colored wood, occasionally used in cabinet-making, and sweet 
edible oily seeds. 
In North America Tumion is not injured by insects or affected by fungal diseases. 
The species can be easily raised from seeds, which, however, soon lose their vitality if allowed to 
become dry. They are occasionally cultivated, but as ornamental plants give little promise of attaining 
the size and beauty which they display in their native forests. 
The generic name, from vor, is said to have been given by Dioscorides to a species of Yew-tree. 
a tree unequaled in the massiveness of its appearance and in the 
beauty of its bright red bark and lustrous dark green, almost black 
1 Saporta, Origine Paléontologique des Arbres, 59. 
2 Tumion nuciferum, Greene, Pittonia, ii. 194 (1891). 
Torreya nucifera, Siebold & Zuccarini, Abhand. Akad. Miinch. 
iv. pt. ili, 232 (1846) ; Fl. Jap. ii. 64, t. 129. — Endlicher, Syn. 
Conif. 240. — Miquel, Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bat. iii. 169 (Prol. Fi. 
Jap.).— Parlatore, De Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 505. — Franchet 
& Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 473. — Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. 
xviil. 500 (Conifers of Japan). — Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. 186. 
Taxus nucifera, Linneus, Spec. 1040 (1753). — Thunberg, Fl. 
Jap. 275. —Gertner, Fruct. ii. 66, t. 91.— A. Richard, Comm. 
Bot. Conf. ii. t. 2, £. 3. 
Podocarpus (?) nucifera, Persoon, Syn. ii. 633 (1807). 
Caryotaxus nucifera, Henkel & Hochstetter, Syn. Nadelh. 366 
(1865). 
Fetataxus nucifera (Nelson) Senilis, Pinacece, 168 (1866). 
foliage. 
The kernels of the seeds, which possess a slightly resinous pleas- 
ant flavor, are an important article of food in Japan, and by pres- 
sure yield an oil, Kaya-no-abura, which is used in cooking, and is 
of considerable commercial importance. The light yellow wood is 
straight-grained, and is employed in building and cabinet-making 
(Rein, Industries of Japan, 94, 157, 231. — Sargent, Forest Fl. Jap. 
76). 
3 Tumion grande, Greene, I. c. (1891). 
Torreya (?) grandis, Gordon, Pinetum, 326 (1858). — Parla- 
tore, J. c. — Franchet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. sér. 2, v. 292 (Pl. David. 
i.). — Masters, /. c. — Beissner, J. c. 185. 
Caryotaxus grandis, Henkel & Hochstetter, l. c. 367 (1865). 
The Kaya, as Tumion nuciferum is called in Japan, is common in 
the forests of central and southern Hondo and in those of the 
southern islands, growing often as an undershrub or as a small tree 
from twenty to thirty feet high, but occasionally, especially on the 
banks of the Kisagawa in central Hondo, rising to the height of 
eighty feet, with a trunk four or five feet in diameter, and forming 
Little is known in regard to the distribution and uses of this 
inhabitant of the mountain forests of northern China, which was 
introduced into English gardens by Fortune in 1847, and it is not 
improbable that it may prove to be specifically identical with the 
Japanese species. 
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 
Leaves slightly rounded on the back, pale on the lower surface. 
and wood fetid . 
Leaves nearly flat, green below, elongated. Fruit green, slightly tinged with purple. Leaves 
and branches pungent-aromatic. . . . . . . . 
Fruit purple. Leaves, branches, 
1. T. TAXIFOLIUM. 
soe ee we ee lw le C:CO OT. « CAnrroRNICUM. 
