TAXACE.E 91 



each filament surmounted by several more or less united pendant pollen-cells; the female 

 of a single erect ovule, becoming at maturity a seed with a hard bony shell, raised upon or 

 more or less surrounded by the enlarged and fleshy aril-like disk of the flower; embryo axile, 

 in fleshy ruminate or uniform albumen; cotyledons 2, shorter than the superior radicle. 

 Of the ten genera widely distributed over the two hemispheres, two occur in North America. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA. 



Filaments dilated into 4 pollen-sacs united into a half ring; seeds drupe-like, green or 

 purple, ripening at the end of the second season; albumen ruminate. 1. Torreya. 



Filaments dilated into a globose head of 4-8 connate pollen-sacs; seeds berry-like, scarlet, 

 ripening at the end of the first season; albumen uniform. 2. Taxus. 



1. TORREYA ARN. 

 Tumion Raf. 



Glabrous foetid or pungent aromatic trees, with fissured bark and verticillate or oppo- 

 site spreading or drooping branches. Leaves thin, long-pointed, abruptly contracted 

 at base, dark green, lustrous and slightly rounded above, thickened and revolute on the 

 margins, with pale bands of stomata on each side of the midvein on the lower surface. 

 Flowers dioecious; the male crowded in the axils of adjacent leaves, on shoots of the 

 previous year, oval or oblong, composed of 6 or 8 close whorls each of 4 stamens, sub- 

 verticillately arranged on a slender axis; filaments stout and expanded above into 4 globose 

 yellow pollen-sacs united into a half ring, their connectives produced above the cells; the 

 female on shoots of the year less numerous and scattered, sessile, the ovule surrounded by 

 and finally inclosed in an ovoid urn-shaped fleshy sac, and becoming at the end of the second 

 season an oblong-ovate yellow-brown seed, rounded and apiculate at apex, acute and 

 marked at base by the large dark hilum; seed-coat thick and woody, its inner layer folded 

 into the thick white albumen, surrounded and finally inclosed in the thick green or purple 

 enlarged disk of the flower composed of thin flat easily separable fibers, splitting longitudin- 

 ally when ripe into two parts and separating from the basal scales persistent on the 

 short stout stalk of the seed. 



Torreya is now confined to Florida and Georgia, western California, Japan, the island of 

 Quelpart, and central and northern China. Four species are recognized. Of the exotic 

 species the Japanese Torreya nucifera S. &Z. is occasionally cultivated in the eastern states. 



The genus is named in honor of Dr. John Torrey, the distinguished American botanist. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Leaves slightly rounded on the back, pale below; leaves, branches, and wood foetid; 



branchlets gray or yellowish green. 1. T. taxifolia (C). 



Leaves nearly flat, green below; leaves, branches and wood pungent-aromatic; branchlets 



reddish brown. 2. T. calif ornica (G). 



1. Torreya taxifolia Am. Stinking Cedar. Torreya. 

 Tumion taxifolium Greene. 



Leaves slightly falcate, 1^' long, about |' wide, somewhat rounded, dark green and lustrous 

 above, paler and marked below with broad bands of stomata. Flowers appearing in March 

 and April; male with pale yellow anthers; female broadly ovoid, with a dark purple fleshy 

 covering to the ovule, |' long, and inclosed at the base by broad thin rounded scales. Seed 

 fully grown at midsummer, slightly obovoid, dark purple, I'-lJ' long, f ' thick, with a thin 

 leathery covering, a light red-brown seed-coat furnished on the inner surface with 2 opposite 



