HO TAXACE.E. Torreya. 



1. TOBREYA, Arnott. CALIFORNIA^ NUTMEG. 



Flowers solitary, from small scaly buds, nearly sessile, the staminate in adjacent 

 axils along the branchlets, the fertile fewer and more scattered ; bud-scales decus- 

 sately opposite, 4 to 6 pairs, larger in the fertile flowers, acutish, persistent. Stamens 

 naked upon the axis of the male flower, divaricate, subverticillate in 6 or 8 close 

 whorls of four, each stamen with 4 slightly united pendent anthers. Ovule en- 

 closed within a fleshy ovate sac, which becomes large and drupaceous in fruit. 

 Embryo small in the fleshy ruminate albumen. Trees, with mostly verticillate or 

 opposite spreading or drooping branches, and linear decurrent rigid and mucronate 

 scattered leaves, spreading distichously, not carinate, bisulcate beneath. 



Four species are known, belonging to Florida, California, Japan and China, respectively. 



1. T. Califomica, Torr. A tree 50 to 75 feet high or more, and 1 to 3 feet in 

 diameter, with slender drooping branches : leaves 1 to 3 inches long by 1| lines 

 broad, nearly flat, acuminate and pungent, on a short stout appressed petiole (so 

 twisting as to bring the blades into two ranks), bright green and shining above, and 

 with a lighter colored sulcus beneath on each side of the midvein : staminate 

 flowers 4 or 5 lines long, the inner basal scales scarious and toothed ; anthers nearly 

 a line long : fruit obovate to oblong-ovate, 1 to 1 1 inches long, the fleshy envelope 

 thin and resinous, adnate at base to the nut, which is more or less strongly sulcate 

 longitudinally. N. Y. Journ. Pharm. iii. 49 ; Newberry, Pacif. R Rep. vi. 61, tig. 

 27 (very poor) ; Parlatore, DC. Prodr. xvi 2 . 506. T. Myristica, Murr. Edinb. 

 New Phil. Journ. x. 7, t. 3; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 4780. 



In the Coast Ranges and Sieira Nevada, from Mendocino and Marin to Yuba and Mariposa 

 Counties, but not abundant. The bark is gray or brown, thin and longitudinally cracked ; the 

 wood is light-colored and close-grained ; branchlets becoming reddish. 



2. TAXUS, Tourn. YEW. 



Inflorescence as in Torreya, but the flower-buds somewhat smaller, with rounded 

 scales, and the fertile flowers on short scaly peduncles. Stamens fewer (usually 8 

 or 10) in a globose head, the 5 to 9 small anthers peltately united. Ovule upon a 

 circular disk, which becomes cup-shaped and in fruit globular, fleshy, red and berry- 

 like, surrounding and nearly enclosing but free from the small bony seed. Albu- 

 men farinaceous. Small trees or shrubs, with scattered branches, and similar but 

 carinate leaves ; bark scaly. 



slightly resinous, heavy, tough and elastic, enduring, and capable of a high polish. 



1 . T. brevifolia, Nutt. A tree 20 or 30 feet high (in Oregon 40 to 60 feet 

 high by 2 or 3 feet in diameter), with slender drooping branches : leaves 6 to 12 

 lines long, acuminate and cuspidate, the margin somewhat revolute, bright green 

 above, glaucous beneath, abruptly narrowed at base into a short slender petiole : 

 staminate. aments 1^ lines broad: fruit amber-red, much flattened: seed broadly 

 ovate and somewhat flattened, acute, over 2 lines long. Sylva, iii. 86, t. 108; 

 Newberry, Pacif. E. Eep. vi. 60, fig. 26. T. Bmirsieri, Carr. Eev. Hort. 1854, 228. 

 T. Lindleyana, Murr. in Edinb. New Phil. Journ. i. 294. 



In the Sierra Nevada and northward to British Columbia. Much larger than T. Canadcnsis of 

 the Fastern States, which is a low shrub and otherwise distinguished by smaller and more slender 

 staminate aments and by a smaller and less flattened rather oblong-ovate nutlet. 



