EVEEGEEEN TREES. 333 



CHAPTEK XVI. 



EVERGREEN TREES. 



TAXACE^. — Yeto, Torreya, Etc. 



An order of several genera, principally evergreen trees or 

 shrubs, closely aUied and usually included in the Coniferae as a 

 sub-family, but as their fruit resembles the drupaceous, rather 

 than the coniferous, some of our more modern botanists havo 

 very properly placed them in a separate group or order preced- 

 ing the true cone-bearing genera. They are but slightly res- 

 inous. Flowers dioecious, the sterile ones in globose catkins, 

 the fertile solitary, axillary, and the fruit drupe-like, with a 

 pulp surrounding, but not always quite enclosing the bony nut- 

 like seed. This order is represented in the United States by only 

 two genera, and four, or at most five species. 



TAXus, Tour. — The Yew. 



Small trees or shrubs with widely spreading branches and 

 linear, rather ilat rigid leaves. Fertile flower, scaly bracted, 

 consisting of a single ovule or cup-Uke disk, which becomes 

 large and berry-like, surrounding the nut -like seed. There are 

 in aU seven recognized species, three belong to the United 

 States, one in Mexico, and the others to the cooler regions of 

 Europe and Asia. 



Taxns baccata, Linn. — Var. Canadensis, Gray. — American Yew. 

 — The American or Canada Yew was by the older botanists con- 

 sidered a distinct species from the English Yew, T. baccata, but 

 Dr. Gray and others of our times give it no higher rank than a 

 well defined variety. It is in every way quite similar to the 

 English Yew, except it is merely a low, straggling shrub, only 

 three or four feet high. It is common in our Northeastern 

 States, and occasionally along the mountains to Virginia. 

 Leaves about an inch long, linear, numerous, mostly arranged 

 on two rows, but sometimes scattered thickly around the termi- 

 nal shoots. The fruit consists of a globular, red fleshy disk sur- 

 rounding, but not quite covering at the top the nut-like seed. 

 The species or English Yew grows to a large-sized tree, and 

 lives to a great age, and is historically one of the most noted 

 trees in the world. There are many varieties, most of which 



