TAXACEyE. THE YEW TRIBE. 
23 
pelach ; and was introduced to this country in 
1840. No large plants of it exist in a culti- 
vated state ; and it is still rare in collections. 
Like other rare plants of this class, it is pro- 
pagated by grafting on allied species, and in 
this case, the common yew tree is employed ; 
it is also increased sparingly by cuttings ; but 
neither of these modes are well adapted to 
secure permanent and handsome plants. When 
it is grafted, it should be placed very low on 
the stock, almost on the root, so that the point 
of union may subsequently be covered with 
soil ; if this is the case, the scion will usually 
produce roots, which are of great aid to the 
plant, and afford some security for its per- 
manence. Torreya taxifolia is identified 
with the Taxus montana of Nuttall, but not of 
other botanists. 
In Florida it forms a tree, growing from 
twenty to forty feet high, and with a diameter 
in the trunk of eighteen inches. The wood 
is there employed generally for most of the 
purposes to which its size adapts it, and is 
heavy and close grained, and when mature, 
of a reddish colour. Like the timber of other 
allied plants, this is very durable, and not 
liable to the attacks of insects, being charged 
with terebinthinate matter ; in fact, a pasty 
turpentine of a blood red colour oozes spar- 
ingly from the bark. The wood possesses a 
very strong and peculiar odour, especially 
when bruised or burned ; and hence the tree 
bears, in Florida, the name of the Stinking 
Cedar. 
Salisburia, Smith ; in honour of Salis- 
bury, a botanist. In Japan, its native country, 
it is called Ginkgo, a title which it retained 
throughout Europe till 1796, when Smith 
substituted its present name, on account of 
the other being, in his opinion, "uncouth and 
barbarous." There is one species only. 
Salisburia adianlifolia, Smith (maiden- 
hair-leaved Salisburia). — A stately tree, 
growing around the pagodas and temples of 
China and Japan, and plentiful about Jeddo, 
Pekin, Canton, and other cities, where it 
rises along with the Rhus vernicifera (var- 
nish-yielding Rhus). In England it assumes 
the habit of sume of our upright-growing 
pear trees, with rough, grey bark, slightly 
furrowed when old like the common acacia. 
The leaves are of a pleasant green, thickened 
at the outsides so as to have a succulent 
appearance, are irregularly triangular, and 
bilobed, or parted at the upper end into two, 
and sometimes three, divisions. They re- 
semble the leaves of some species of Adiantum 
whence its name of maideri-hair tree. The male 
flowers appear in May, on old spurs of the pre- 
ceding year, without any footstalk, and are of 
the colour and size of the blossoms of the com- 
mon berberry. The female flowers are inclosed 
within a catyx-like involucre or cup, some- 
thing like the yew berry in its young state. 
The fruit is a white nut enclosed in a globu- 
lar drupe. The kernel is eaten in China after 
being roasted, in the same way as chestnuts 
are done in this country. 
Till lately, all the discovered trees in Britain 
were thought to be males, but in 1818 a female 
plant was reared from a cutting sent to Kew 
Gardens, and from that quarter a great many 
scions have since been distributed. As a 
proof of the enthusiasm and patience with 
which the late Mr. Loudon prosecuted the 
task of preparing his great work, the Arbo- 
retum JBritannicum, it may be stated that in 
1835, he and the writer of these lines were 
several clays employed in the suburbs of Lon- 
don in searching for all the old Salisburias 
that could be heard of, in order, if possible, 
to discover one with female flowers. The 
pursuit was unsuccessful ; and the only dis- 
covery made amounted to this — that the fine 
specimen then (and probably now), standing 
in the Mile-end Nursery, was a male, Mr. L. 
having detected flowers upon a plant in an 
adjoining garden, which had been raised from 
the old specimen in the nursery. 
Male plants are very common in the Lon- 
don nurseries, and are sold accordingto size and 
age from Is. (id. to 4s. 6d. each. Those who 
are in possession of the male, and wish for the 
other, had better graft a slip of the latter on 
the male tree. 
The sure way of propagating this plant is 
by layers. The stool should be planted in a 
loose sandy loam trenched to the depth of 
three feet; in this soil it will thrive better 
than in any other. In the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of the young shoots intended to be 
laid down, a quantity of sharp road-sand 
should be introduced, and if the twigs are 
carefully cut under a joint, as picotees are 
done, and covered with a hand-glass, they 
will root very speedily. I have tried them 
in March and in September, and find that 
the)' answer equally well at both these times. 
For such trees as are planted out permanently, 
the same sort of soil is recommended. A 
sheltered situation is necessaiy; and though 
little is to be expected from this plant as a 
timber tree in this country, it forms a most 
desirable object for the lawn and pleasure 
ground. 
In one of his lectures at the Jardin des 
Plantes, Thouin thus relates the singular 
manner in which this plant found its way 
into France : — "In 1780, a Parisian amateur 
named Pctigny, made a voyage to London, 
in order to see the principal gardens ; and 
among the number of those be visited was 
thai of a commercial gardener, who possessed 
five young plants of Ginkgo biloba, which 
