THE YEW FAMILY. 



203 



tribe. The branches and leaves are in a high degree poi- 

 sonous to horses and horned cattle, and act on man like 

 Digitalis in arresting the action of the heart. The Irish 

 Yew is a variety. 



Yacca (Podoccirpus Furdieana and P. coriacea). Large trees 

 natives of Jamaica. They afford excellent hard timber. 



Podocarpus Totara. A large tree with tough wood, native 

 of New Zealand ; P. spinulosa of New South Wales ; Yellow 

 Wood (P. elongata) of South Africa, and P. latifolia of India, 

 are large trees affording good timber. P. cupressina is a large 

 tree in Penang and Java, attaining the height of 200 feet. In 

 New Zealand Dacrydium Cupressinum is a beautiful and lofty 

 tree, with slender pendulous branches, compactly covered 

 with heath-like leaves. A beverage like spruce beer is made 

 from its young shoots. 



Huon Pine (^Dacrydium FranMinii). A large and lofty 

 tree, native of Tasmania. Specimens of it are found in a 

 fossilized state, which are white, and being easily separated 

 into pieces, show the structure of the wood very distinctly. 



Celery-leaved Pine (^Phyllocladus rhomboidalis) , also a 

 native of Tasmania, and P. trichomanoides, native of New 

 Zealand, are remarkable trees, having no true leaves, their 

 place being supplied by broad dilated branches, which are 

 more or less notched or cut, having the appearance of 

 leaves. 



Maidenhair Tree (Salisburia adiantifolia) . This remark- 

 able tree is a native of Japan, and was introduced more than 

 a hundred years ago. It is the only deciduous tree of the 

 family, and also differs in having broad two-lobed leaves with 

 longitudinal forked veins, and the likeness of the leaves to 

 the Maidenhair fern has led to it being called by the above 

 name. This, with the yew and a species from Japan, are the 

 only ones of the family that withstand the winters of this cli- 

 mate. 



Allied to Pinacea is a small family called Gnetacece^ founded 

 on the genus Ephedra, and the curious plant named by 

 Linnaeus Gnetum Gnemon^ native of India. A small tree with 



