126 



The Torreyas 



I. FLORIDA TORRE YA Tumion taxifolium (Arnott) Greene 



Torreya taxijolia Arnott 



This medium-sized, ill-scented, but beautiful tree, is confined to a narrow 

 region bordering on the Appalachicola river in Gadsden county, Florida, occurring 

 in Hmestone soil and in river-swamps, attaining a maximum height of i8 m. 

 with a trunk diameter of 9 dm. It is also called Torrey tree. Stinking cedar, 

 Stinking savin, Foetid yew, and Savin. 



The trunk is short; the branches are in whorls, spreading and somewhat 



drooping, forming an 

 open broad conic tree. 

 The bark is about 12 

 mm. thick, broadly but 

 shallowlv fissured into 

 low irregular ridges, 

 which are covered with 

 close thin scales, brown 

 externally, yellowish in- 

 ternally. The twigs are 

 round, slender, sHghtly 

 hairy, bright green, grad- 

 ually becoming dark yel- 

 lowish red. The winter 

 buds are ovoid, about 6 

 mm. long, pointed, their 

 scales ovate, thickish, 

 sharp-pointed and shin- 

 ing. The leaves are 

 linear, nearly straight, 

 1.5 to 4.5 cm. long, some- 

 what narrowed at the 

 hard sharp-pointed apex, 

 rounded and short- 

 stalked at the base, en- 

 tire and slightly revolute on the margin, dark green and shining above, pale and 

 faintly longitudinally grooved beneath. The staminate flowers are sub-globose, 

 about 6 mm. long, their scales thick and stiff, keeled on the back, the lower 

 pointed; the anthers are light yellow. The pistillate flower is broadly ovoid, 3 

 mm. long, narrowed at the apex, its ovule covered by a purple, pulpy coating and 

 subtended by ovate or rounded scales. The fmit, which is rather sparingly pro- 

 duced, ripens in summer, but persists until late autumn; it is globose-oblong or 

 somewhat ovoid, 3 to 4 cm. long; the seed is Ught reddish brown. 



The wood is hard, strong, but rather brittle, close-grained, light yellow, and 



Fig. 97. Florida Torreya. 



