518 CXXXI. CONIFERS. TAXUS. 



and durable. It is used for fences, aqueducts, tubs and pails, and in the manu- 

 facture of drawing pencils. April, May. 



/?. prostrata. Lvs. ovate, submucronate, glandular in the middle, appressed ; 

 berries tubercular ; st. prostrate, creeping. A shrub, on gravely shores, with 

 creeping branches 4 81' long. 



TRIBE 3. TAXIXEJE. 



Fertile flowers solitary, terminal, consisting of a naked ovule maturing into a 



kind of drupe. 



6. TAXUS. 



Gr. Tal-ov, an arrow ; arrows were formerly poisoned with the juice of the yew tree. 



Flowers cT 9 or , surrounded with numerous scales. cT Stamens 

 8 10, monadelphous ; anthers peltate. 6 8-celled, cells dehiscent 

 beneath. 9 solitary, consisting of a single oyule, becoming in fruit a 

 fleshy, 1 -seeded drupe. Trees or shrubs, with evergreen, linear, alter- 

 ieaves. 



T. CANADENSIS. Dwarf Yew. Ground Hemlock. 



Lvs. linear, mucronate, 2-ranked, revolute on the margin ; sterile recepta- 

 cles globose. A small, evergreen shrub, with the general aspect of a dwarf 

 hemlock spruce (Pinus Canadensis}. It grows on thin, rocky soils in shady 

 places, 2 3f long, Can. to Penn. and Ky. Leaves nearly an inch long, ar- 

 ranged in 2 opposite rows, on the sides of the branchlets. Staminate flowers in 

 small, roundish, axillary heads. Drupes oval, concave or open at the summit, 

 red and juicy when mature. May. 



