Ephedra. TAXACE^E. 109 



column : fertile aments pedunculate ; the peduncle | to 3 lines long or more, with 

 reduced bracts or rarely naked ; bracts of the ament 4 or 5 pairs, round-ovate : fruit 

 3 or 4 lines long, exserted, acutish : micropyle a line long. Proc. Amer. Acad. 

 xiv. 298. E. antisyphilitica, Watson, Bot. King Exp. 328, t. 39. 



From N. Nevada and the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada to the Colorado Valley (Fort 

 Mohave, Cooper), Northern Mexico and the Rio Grande. Rather variable, the more northern 

 and western form with the fruit more frequently in pairs and the aments longer pedunculate, but 

 the form with long naked peduncles rare. The older bark usually becomes white and shreddy. 

 Specimens without flowers or fruit from the Santa Inez Mountains (Brewer) and Fort Tejon, 

 probably belong to this species, though with distinct persistent scales. 



E. ANTisYi'HiMTlCA, C. A. Meyer, of W. Texas and Northern Mexico, has very weak stems 

 several feet long, nearly prostrate or supported by other shrubs, with very short or setaceously 

 tipped distinct subpersistent scales ; peduncles very short : bracts of the staminate aments 4 to 6 

 pairs, of the pistillate 3 or 4 pairs : filaments distinct above : fruit 3 lines long. 



* * Scales 3-lobed and branches ternate : bracts in threes and scarcely connate, 

 of the pistillate aments mostly scarious and more or less unguiculate : fruit 

 solitary, rarely in threes. 



2. E. Californica, Watson. Stems decumbent or suberect, the branches not 

 spinose : scales oblong, acutish, sheathing but soon splitting to the base and recurved, 

 long-persistent and often dark-colored, 1^ to 3 lines long : staminate aments globose, 

 sessile, of 4 whorls of nearly distinct bracts : perianth broad, included : filaments 

 (4 or 5) united to the summit : fertile aments sessile, of 4 or 5 whorls of rather 

 rigid reniform-orbicular entire bracts with a very short broad claw : fruit solitary, 

 ovate, 4-angled, acutish, smooth, 3 to 3| lines long. Proc. Amer. Acad. xiv. 300. 



San Diego County ; promontory opposite San Diego and in Jamul Valley, Palmer. The other 

 two species of this peculiar group have much more conspicuously scarious bracts with narrow 

 claws scarcely at all connected at base, and are found from S. Utah to the Rio Grande ; viz., E. 

 TiiiFiMiCA, Torr., erect, with spinosely tipped branches and conspicuous persistent sheathing 

 acuminate scales (3 to 6 lines long) becoming white and shreddy; staminate perianth cuneate- 

 oblong, included ; the fertile aments of numerous whorls of entire bracts 5 or 6 Hues long ; fruit 

 smooth, 6 lines long : and E. TOKKEYANA, Watson, similar but the branches not spinose and 

 the short acutish scales less persistent and not becoming shreddy ; staminate perianth round- 

 ovate ; fertile aments with fewer (6 or 7 whorls) often crenulate bracts 3 to 5 lines long ; fruit 

 scabrous, about 4 lines long. 



ORDER GIL TAXACE^. 



Evergreen trees or shrubs, sparingly resinous, with scaly buds, and (in our genera) 

 scattered linear leaves spreading in 2 ranks, the flowers dioecious, axillary and soli- 

 tary, achlamydeous and naked or surrounded by the imbricated and usually decus- 

 sate bud-scales ; staminate flowers with the filaments monadelphous in a column, 

 each filament surmounted by several more or less united pendent anther-cells, de- 

 hiscing longitudinally on the lower side ; pollen globose : fertile flower of a solitary 

 orthotropous ovule, which in fruit becomes a bony-coated seed raised upon or more 

 or less surrounded by or consolidated with a fleshy disk, cup, or other coating. 

 Embryo axile in fleshy or farinaceous albumen ; cotyledons only 2, semiterete. 



An order, usually included in the Coniferce, approaching the Cupressincce through the inter- 

 mediate Podocarpcce. The Taxacece p7-oper are confined to temperate Asia and America, a single 

 species extending its range through Europe. The larger suborder Podocarpc.ee are peculiar to the 

 warmer regions of Asia, Africa, Australia and the adjacent islands, and S. America. 



1. Torreya. Ovule within an urceolate disk perforate at the apex, which becomes drupe-like in 



fruit. Albumen fleshy, ruminate. Anther-cells 4. 



2. Taxus. Ovule on an annular disk, which becomes a small berry-like cup surrounding the 



seed. Albumen farinaceous. Anther-cells 5 to 9. 



