THE YEW FAMILY 



TAXACE/E Lindley 



HIS family consists of about lo genera, comprising some 75 species of 

 slow-growing, slightly resinous and aromatic evergreen trees or shrubs, 

 widely distributed, but most numerous in the southern hemisphere, 

 and also represented by many fossil forms from Greenland southward. 

 They are of little economic value, except that the wood of some is very durable 

 and that of the European yew was highly prized for making bows by the ancients, 

 and it is also used by modem archers. The fleshy covering of the seed of some is 

 quite palatable, although an unfounded superstition would have them deadly 

 poison. As ornaments they have long held a special place in landscape gardening. 

 The bark and leaves of some have had medicinal repute, but their therapeutic 

 value is too little to make them useful in modem practice. 



The Taxaceae have persistent, stiff, simple, and entire spirally arranged leaves, 

 which usually spread so to make them appear as if 2-ranked or opposite. The 

 flowers are monoecious or dioecious, axillary or terminal, devoid of any perianth; 

 the staminate consist of various-shaped scales protecting and supporting the pollen- 

 sacs which open lengthwise. The pistillate flowers consist of a usually soHtary 

 ovule, naked or sheltered by imbricated bracts. The fruit is drupe-hke, erect, 

 nearly enclosed in an accrescent gelatine-Uke aril, or naked; seed bony or woody, 

 its endosperm fleshy or mealy, sometimes channeled; cotyledons 2. The North 

 American genera are: 



Fruit surrounded by an aril-like cup; endosperm even; pollen-sacs 



6 to 8. I. Taxus. 



Fruit naked, drupe-like; endosperm channeled; pollen-sacs 4. 2. Tuniion. 



I. THE YEWS 



GENUS TAXUS [TOURNEFORT] LINN^US 



HIS genus contains about 6 species of trees or shmbs of the northern 

 hemisphere, never attaining any great height and of no special value, 

 except for ornament. The wood is strong and elastic; that of the Old 

 world yew, Taxus haccata Linnaeus, is prized for furniture. The 

 fleshy covering of the seed is sweet and edible. The bark and leaves have been 

 employed in medicine, the former also in dyeing. 



They have persistent, Hnear, flat leaves, sometimes a little curved. The 

 usually dioecious flowers appear in early spring from buds formed the previous 

 season; the staminate short-stalked and nearly globular, subtended by an imbri- 



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