474 CONIFERS, (pine family.) 



6" -9" long; berries large. — Dry sterile hiUs ; common. May, June. — Low- 

 shrub, ascending or spreading on the ground. (Eu. ) 



Var. alpina, L. (J. nana, Wtlld.), is a prostrate state, with shorter and less 

 tapering, mostly ascending or incurved leaves. — Shores of upper Great Lakes, 

 Maine, and northward. (Eu.) 



§ 2. Leaves small, mostly opposite, not articulated hut connate-decurrent on the stem 

 of two somewJiat different forms, i. e. awl-shaped and loose, and scale-shaped and 

 oppressed -imbricated, the latter fattened and often with a resiniferous gland on 

 the back, and no distinct nerve or midrib. 



2. J. Virginiina, L. (Red Cedae or Savin.) Scale-shaped leaves 

 acute or acutish ; fruit small, erect on the short supporting branchlet. — Dry, 

 mostly sterile or rocky soil : common. May. — Shrub, small tree, or westward 

 often a large tree, 60° - 90° high ; with most durable, compact, reddish and odor- 

 ous wood. 



3. J. Sabina, L., var. proeiimbens, Pursh. Scale-shaped leaves ob- 

 tuse or acutish, strongly appressed ; fruit larger, nodding on th£ recurved peduncle- 

 like branchlet ; stems procumbent or prostrate, sometimes extensively creeping. 

 (J. Virginiana, var. humilis, Ed. 2.) — Eocky banks, borders of swamps, &c., 

 Maine to Wisconsin along and near the Great Lakes, and northward. May, 

 June. (Eu.) 



8. TAXUS, Tourn. Yew. 



Flowers mostly dioecious, or sometimes monoecious, axillary from scaly buds ; 

 the sterile in small globular catkins formed of a few naked stamens : anther- 

 cells 3-8 under a shield-like somewhat lobed connective. Fertile flowers 

 solitary, scaly-bracted at the base, consisting merely of an erect sessile ovule ; 

 with an annular disk, which becomes cup-shaped around its base, and at 

 length pulpy and berry-like, globular and red, and nearly enclosing the nutr 

 like seed. Cotyledons 2. — Leaves evergreen, flat, mucronate, rigid, scattered, 

 2-ranked. (The classical name, probably from to^ov, a bow; the wood anciently 

 used for bows. ) 



1. T. baceS,ta, L., var. Canadensis. (Amekican Yew. Groitnd 

 Hemlock.) Stems diff'usely spreading; leaves linear, green both sides. (T. 

 Canadensis, Willd.) — Moist banks and hills, near streams, especially in the 

 shade of evergreens : common northward, extending southward only along 

 the Alleghanies. April. — Our Tew is a low and straggling or prostrate 

 bush, never forming an erect trunk like that of Europe and of Northwest 

 America. (Eu.) 



