Tuxus.] 
MONOCOTYLEDONES. 
421 
3. Taxus Linn. Yew. 
Dioecious. — Barren fl. in oval catkins , surrounded at the base 
with imbricate bracteas, of which the inner ones are larger ; 
scales crowded, peltate, with 3 — 8 anther-cells on the lower 
surface. — Fertile fl. a solitary erect ovule , seated on a fleshy 
disk, with a few imbricate scales at the base. Seed solitary, 
bony, contained in an open fleshy cup-shaped receptacle, re- 
sembling a drupe. — Name: probably from ro£ov, a bow, because 
the wood was excellent for that purpose : rolov also means 
an arrow ; perhaps arrows were poisoned with the juice of its 
berries. 
1. T. baccdta L. (common Y .) ; leaves crowded linear acute 
flowers axillary sessile. —or. branches spreading leaves distichous. 
E. B. t. 7,46. — fi. branches fastigiate, leaves scattered. T. 
fastigiata Lindl. T. Hibernica Mack. 
Mountain woods, b- 3. — Leaves linear, persistent, deep green. 
Fruit red, esteemed poisonous. Our (3. is the Irish or Florence-court 
yew: two plants of it were found among juniper bushes on the 
mountains near Benoughlin (Lord Enniskillen’s estate) about the 
middle of last century, by a tenant who brought one to Florence- 
court. from which all those now in existence were propagated : it is 
the pistillate plant, but it bears fruit if staminate flowers of the 
common kind be in the neighbourhood ; the seeds, however, we un- 
derstand, never yield the Irish form. 
CLASS II. 
MONOCOTYLEDONOUS', os ENDOGENOUS 
FLOWERING PLANTS. 
Cellular and vascular. Stem (when perennial) not in- 
creasing by a succession of annual layers on tlie outside 
of the old ones, usually with no distinction of bark, wood, 
pith, or medullary rays, but consisting of cellular tissue, 
in which the vascular is inserted in confused bundles, or 
in a single ring, the newest formation being internal. 
Leaves mostly alternate below, often sheathing, perma- 
nent and withering on the stem, more rarely jointed 
and deciduous, with usually parallel nerves connected by 
simple transverse veins, rarely netted-veined. Flowers 
with a single perianth (or without one), the parts mostly 
1 From fxovos , one or single, and xorvXyduv, a cotyledon. 
