178 THE CULTIVATED EVERGREENS 



on spurs, slender-stalked, fan-shaped, more or less incised or divided at the 

 broad summit, 2-3 inches across: fruit obovoid or ellipsoid, about 1 inch long, 

 yellowish, consisting of a 2-angled, ovoid, creamy-white thin-shelled nut 

 surrounded by a pulpy, ill-smelling outer coat; kernel sweet, edible. Eastern 

 China, cultivated in Japan. — Introduced to Europe in 1730, to America in 

 1784. Hardy as far north as southern Canada. A rather sparingly branched, 

 picturesque tree remarkable for its fan-shaped leaves which turn yellow in 

 autumn; it is suitable for planting singly on the lawn and is also a desirable 

 street tree, but the planting of fertile specimens should be avoided, as the 

 Ul-smelling fruits are objectionable. 



Several horticultural forms are in cultivation, as var. variegata, Carr., 

 with variegated leaves, var. laciniata, Carr., with deeply incised leaves, and 

 var. pendtila, Carr., with pendulous branches. 



ram.II. TAXACE^. YEW FAMILY 



Much-branched evergreen trees or shrubs, with resin-tubes in the bark 

 and no true vessels in the secondary wood: leaves alternate, rarely opposite, 

 often 2-ranked, needle-like or scale-like, persistent: flowers dioecious, rarely 

 monoecious; staminate flowers cone-like, the anthers borne on the protected 

 portion of more or less apically thickened or peltate scales (sporophyUs) ; 

 fertile flowers consisting of ovules borne singly or 2 together on a fleshy or 

 rudimentary carpel (sporophyll) , inverted or straight, the outer integument 

 forming an arillus : fruit a dry seed with a bony shell, usually surrounded by 

 a fleshy often highly colored aril, sometimes borne on a fleshy receptacle; 

 embryo with 2 cotyledons. 



The family is related to the Pinaceae, but differs in the reduction of the 

 pistillate cone to a single ovule, in the modification or suppression of the 

 sporophyll, and in the aril or arillus. The closely related family of Gink- 

 goacese differs in the catkin-like staminate flowers with the anthers borne in 

 stalked pairs on a slender axis, in the fertilization by means of motile sperm- 

 ceUs and in the fan-shaped deciduous leaves. These three families were 

 formerly united under Coniferse and form, together with the Cycadacese 

 and Gnetacete, the division of Gymnospermse. Taxacese contains 12 genera 

 and about 100 species, of which 60 belong to the genus Podocarpus, and is 

 widely distributed in the temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions of both 

 hemispheres. Its name is derived from the genus Taxus, the best and longest 

 known genus of the family. Besides the five genera grown in this country 

 and described below, the following are occasionally cultivated in Europe: 

 Saxegothsea, Microcachrys, Acmopyle, and Dacrydium, a tropical genus 

 with dimorphic, scale-like or needle-like foliage, while Pherosphsera, Amento- 

 taxus, and Austrotaxus are apparently not in cultivation. 



