51S CXXXI. CONIFERS. TAXDS. 



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

 facture of drawing pencils. April, May. 



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

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

 creeping branches 4 8f long. 



TRIBE 3. TAXINEJE. 



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



kind of drupe. 



6. TAXUS. 



Gr. raoj/, an arrow ; arrows were formerly poisoned with the juice of the yew tree.. 



Flowers c? 9 or 8 , surrounded with numerous scales, c? Stamens 

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

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

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

 nate leaves. 



T. CANADENSIS. Dwarf Yew. Ground Hemlock. 



L/vs. linear, mucronate, 2-ranked, re volute on the margin; sterile "eccpta- 

 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. 



