1464 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



name Taxus nucifera. Loudon gives the date of introduction as 1820, ^nd s^tes 

 that a tree at White Knights was 13 ft. high in 1834. Siebold sent it to Holland 

 about 1840. It is rare in cultivation, and is never seen except as a shrub. 



(H. J. E.) 



TORREYA GRANDIS 



Torreya grandis. Fortune, in Gard. Chron. 1857, P- 788, and i860, p. 170, and in Gordon, Pinetum 

 326 (1858); Masters, \n Journ. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xviii. 5°° (1881), xxvii. 323, fig. 28 (1890), 

 and xxvi. 546 (1902), and in Gard. Chron. ii. 681, fig. 117 (1884); Franchet, PI. David. 1. 



292 (1884). „„ . , . 



Torreya Fargesii, Franchet, m Journ. de Bot. xiii. 264 (1899); Pilger, in Engler, Pfianzenretch, iv. 



5, Taxacece, 108 (1903). 

 Torreya nucifera, Siebold and Zuccarini, var. grandis, Pilger, op. cit. 107 (1903). 

 Caryotaxus grandis, Henkel and Hochstetter, Syn. Nadelholz. 366 (1865). 

 Tumion grande, Greene, in Pittonia, ii. 194 (1891). 



A tree, attaining 80 ft. in height in China, with leaves and branchlets devoid of 

 a disagreeable or pungent odour. Young branchlets green, glabrous, becoming 

 yellowish brown in the second year. Leaves, \ to i in. long, \ in. broad, linear- 

 lanceolate, similar to those of T. nucifera in shape, but thinner in texture, with 

 similar deeply depressed stomatic bands, nearly as wide as the midrib, but narrower 

 than the marginal green bands. 



Fruit broadly ellipsoid, f to i in. long ; flesh not disagreeable in odour ; shell 

 reddish brown, with irregular shallow depressions over the surface ; inner coat only 

 slightly folded into the albumen. 



Torreya grandis was discovered by Fortune in 1855 in the coast province of 

 Chekiang in China, in the mountains south-west of Ningpo, at 4000 ft. elevation. 

 Here numerous fine trees were seen, many of which were 60 to 80 ft. in height. 

 It was subsequently collected in the adjoining province of Fukien by Pere David. 

 The same tree^ also exists in the central provinces of Hupeh and Szechwan, in the 

 mountains between 4000 and 6000 ft. elevation ; where it occasionally attains a 

 height of 50 ft., but it is more commonly shrubby, bearing fruit when only 8 ft. high. 

 This tree is known to the Chinese as fei ; and the kernels, called fei-shihf are 

 sold in the drug-shops of most Chinese towns, being considered a valuable remedy 

 in cases of cough, asthma, etc. They are occasionally eaten like hazel nuts, and 

 though reputed laxative, are considered wholesome. 



Torreya grandis was introduced by Fortune, who sent seeds in 1855 to Glen- 

 dinning's nursery at Chiswick, where they germinated freely. This species is not 

 common in collections, the only specimen which we have seen being a small shrub 

 in the Cambridge Botanic Garden, which was obtained from Veitch in 1 894. 



(A. H.) 



'^ The Torreya of Central China is considered by Franchet and Pilger to be a distinct species, T. Fargesii ; but I can see 

 no characters by which it can be separated from the Chekiang species. 

 2 Cf. Hanbury, Sc. Papers, 233 (1876). 



