Edith Chick on Torreya Myristica. 
THE SEEDLING OF TORREYA MYRISTICA, 
33 
By Edith Chick, B.Sc., 
Quain Student in Botany, University College, London, 
[With Plates VII. and VIII.] 
*M 'ORRE Y A is a small and little known genus, which in conjunction 
with Taxtts, Cephalotaxus and Podocarpus forms the group 
of the Taxineae. 
Torreya myristica , syn. californica, locally known as the 
Californian nutmeg, is found in the ravines of the Sierra Nevada in 
California, where it grows to a height of 40 to 50 feet. 1 Other 
species are found in Japan and the Himalayas. The tree is an ever¬ 
green and its foliage recalls that of the common yew, but the leaves 
are larger and longer. The plum-shaped drupe-like fruit, about 
one and a half inches long, consists of a single seed enclosed in a 
fibrous fleshy envelope, which, when ripe, is of a green-brown 
colour. The tree does not usually thrive in Great Britain, and the 
production of fertile seed is rare, but an exception is found in the 
gardens at Orton Longueville, near Peterborough, where a large 
tree exists in a flourishing condition and produces fertile seeds. 
Two of the three seedlings described in this paper were germi¬ 
nated there, and an opportunity of examining them was afforded by 
the kindness of Mr. A. Harding, the head gardener, who sent them 
to Professor Oliver. 
These two seedlings, represented in PI. vii, Figs. 2 and 3, were 
sown, with the fleshy covering still on, at the time when the seeds were 
ripe, in November, 1900, and were gathered on May 31st, 1902, and 
June 15th, 1902, so that they were respectively eighteen and 
nineteen months old. The third seedling (PI. vii., Fig. 1) came from 
Kew, and was sown in January, 1895, and gathered in May of the 
following year, being thus sixteen months old. The Orton seedlings 
were much more advanced than this; their epicotyls had reached heights 
of five and eight inches respectively, and there was a great develop¬ 
ment of secondary thickening both in root and stem. The one from 
Kew had an epicotyl only two inches high, and the smaller amount 
of thickening present made the specimen far more useful for 
anatomical purposes. In all three cases all trace of the fleshy 
covering was gone. 
1 Veitcli, Manual of Coni ferae, p. 309. 
