110 TAXACE.E. Torreya. 



1. TOBREYA, Arnott. Californian 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 tlie axis of the male flower, divaricate, subverticillate in G 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. Californica, Torr. A tree 50 to 75 feet high or more, and 1 to 3 feet in 

 diameter, witli slender drooping branches: leaves 1 to 3 inches long by IJ 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 iiiches long, the fleshy enveloi)e 

 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. E. Rep. vi. Gl, fig. 

 27 (very poor) ; Parlatore, DC. Prodr. xvi^. 50G. 7\ Myristica, JNIurr. Edinb. 

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



In the Coast Kanges and Sierra 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. TAXITS, Tourn. Yew. 

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

 scales, and the fertile flowers on sliort 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. Allni- 

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

 carinate leaves ; bark scaly. 



Seven species are recognized, confined to the temi^rate and cooler regions of the northern hemi- 

 sphere, two belonging to the Atlantic Coast, one to the Pacific, and another to tiie mountains 

 of Mexico. All are very similar and distinguished by slight characters. The wood is only 

 slightly resinous, heavy, tough and elastic, enduring, and ca2iable 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, tlie margin somewhat revolute, bright green 

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

 staminate aments \\ lines broad: fruit amber-red, much flattened: seed broadly 

 OA'ate and somewhat flattened, acute, over 2 lines long. — Sylva, iii. 8G, t. 108; 

 Newberry, Pacif. R. Rep. vi. GO, fig. 26. T. Boursieri, Carr. Rev. Hort. 1854, 228. 

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



In the Sierra Nevada and northward to British Columliia. Much larger than T. Canadensis of 

 the Kasteiu 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. 



