VEW FAMILV 



595 



Ord. XCIII. TaxIce/e.— The Yew Family 



A small Order of trees and shrubs, represented in both hemi- 

 spheres and com])rising 9 genera and about 75 species. Their 

 flowers are dioecious ar.d they do not form [jerfect cones, the ovules 

 being freijuently not on the carpels but * in their axils, or the 

 carpels being altogether absent. The seed has either a fleshy 

 iesla, or is surrounded by a fleshy ai'il. Several members of the 



TAxUS BACCATA iContinOn }'f?7C'). 



Order yield valuable tmiber, such as the Huon Pine (Daoydium 

 Fraf?kli?!n) of Tasmania. The Yews (Tdxusj are remarkable 

 among Coniferas for the absence of resin. 



I. Taxus, of which T. baccdia (Common Yew) is the only 



British species, is an evergreen tree, seldom of any great height, 



but reaciiing a great age, possibly sometimes 2,000 years, and 



a diameter of nearly 10 feet ; bark broivn, 'fibrous; leaves linear, 



Q Q * 



