85 
THE YEW. 
(If. Fr.) 
Natural Order , Taxineje. (Richard.) Linncean Classifica- 
tion , Dioecia Monadelphia. 
TAXUS* (Tourn. Linn.) 
Dioecious. — Mate flower composed of imbricated bud scales, connate at 
base. Staminiferous column exserted, the stamens 6 to 14, forming a 
capitate cluster. Anthers peltate, 5 to 8-celled, the cells opening from 
beneath. The Pistillate (or fertile flower,) the same as the male, 
but solitary. The fruit a nut imbedded in a translucent succulent cup. 
Embryo inverted, in the axis of the perisperm : cotyledones 2, very 
short. 
Trees or rarely shrubs indigenous to the temperate and colder regions 
of both continents ; leaves narrow, rigid, acerose and sempervirent, near 
together and distichally spreading; the buds axillary and sessile, com- 
posed of imbricated bractes : the leaves in vernation or before develop- 
ment, appressed. 
The plants of the present order, Taxine^, inhabit temperate climates 
over the whole globe, but are most frequent in the southern hemisphere ; 
between the tropics of the old world they also occur, but rarely. 
# Probably from the Greek, Toxon y a bow. 
Vol. m. — 12 
