474 CONIFERS. (PINF, FAMILY.) 



6"-9"long; berries large. — Dry sterile hills: common. May, June. — Low 

 shrub, ascending or spreading on the ground. (Eu.) 



Var. alpina, L. (J. nana, W'ilhl.}, is a prostrate state, with shorter and less 

 ta])ering, mostly ascendin;^ or incurved leaves. — Shores of upper Great Lakes, 

 Maine, and northward. (Lu.) 



§ 2. £eavi-s small, mostly opposite, not iirlkulated but connate-decurrent on the stem 

 of two somewhat dijj'erent forms, i. e. awl-shaped and loose, and scale-shaped and 

 appressed-imhricattd, the latter flattened and ojlen with a rtsiniferous <jland on 

 the buck, and no distinct nerve or midrib. 



2. J. Virginikna, L. (Red Cedar or Savin.) Scale-shaped leaves 

 acute or acutish ; fruit small, a'ect on the short supporting branchlet. — Dry, 

 mostly sterile or rocky soil : common. May. — Shrub, small tree, or westward 

 oi'ten a large tree, 60° -90° high ; with most durable, compact, reddish and odor- 

 ous wood. 



3. J. Sabina, L., var. proevimbens, Pursh. Scale-shaped leaves ob- 

 tuse or acutish, strongly ai)j)resscd ; fntit linjer, nodding on the recurred pedunde- 

 likc branrltht ; stems procumbent or prostrate, sometimes extensively creeping. 

 (J. Yirginiana, var. hnmilis, Ed. 2.) — Rocky banks, borders of swamps, &c., 

 Maine to Wisconsin along and near the Great Lakes, and northward. May, 

 June. (Eu.) 



8. TAXUS, Tourn. Ykw. 



Elowers mostly direcious, or sometimes monoecious, axillary from scaly buds ; 

 the sterile in small globtdar catkins formed of a few naked stamens : anther- 

 cells 3-8 imder a shield-like somewhat lobed connective. Fertile flowers 

 solitar}'^, scaly-bracted at the base, consisting merely of an erect sessile ovule ; 

 ■with an annular disk, which becomes cup-shaped around its base, and at 

 length jniljiy and berry-like, globular and red, and nearly enclosing the nut- 

 like seed. Cotyledons 2. — Leaves evergreen, flat, niucronate, rigid, scattered, 

 2-ranked. (The classical name, probably from ru^ov, a how; the wood anciently 

 used for bows. ) 



1. T. baccata, L., var. Canadensis. (American Yew. Gr()im> 

 Hemlock.) Stems diffusely spreading; leaves linear, green both sides. (T. 

 Canadensis, Willd.) — Moist banks and hills, near streams, especially in the 

 shade of evergreens : common northward, extending southward mainly along 

 the Alleghanies. April. — Our Yew is a low and straggling or prostrate 

 bush, never forming £^n erect trunk like that of Europe and of Northwest 

 America. (Eu.) 



