30 
RANUNCULACEAE 
TAXACEAE. YEW FAMILY 
Trees or shrubs with linear leaves 2-ranked by a twist in their petioles. 
Stamens and ovules on different trees. Fruit berry-like or drupe-like.— 
Species about 70, all continents. 
Fruit red, berry-like; leaves 1.2 to 1.6 cm. long. 1. Taxus. 
Fruit green or purplish, plum-like; leaves 3 to 6 cm. long. 2. Torreya. 
1. TAXUS L. Yew 
Trees or shrubs. Fruit cup-shaped, fleshy, red, surrounding the 
bony seed, the whole berry-like. (Ancient Latin name of the yew, prob¬ 
ably from Greek toxon, a bow, the wood used for bows.) 
1. T. brevifolia Nutt. Western Yew. Tree 2 to 8 m. high; fruit borne 
on under side of the sprays.—Deep, shady canons; Santa Cruz Mts. n.; 
Calaveras Co. n. The wood is hard, heavy, close-grained, flexible and 
durable. The native tribes made from it their best bows, just as the 
bowmen of Henry the Fourth made theirs from the closely allied English 
Yew. It is now used for tool handles and machine-bearings. 
2. TORREYA Arn. Stinking Yew 
Trees with rigid sharp-pointed leaves. Fruit drupe-like. (John Tor- 
rey, Professor of Botany in Columbia College.) 
1. T. califomica Torr. California Nutmeg. Tree 4 to 14 m. high; 
fruit elliptical, 2.7 to 4.2 cm. long.—Cool shady canons: Santa Cruz Mts. 
to Mendocino Co.; Sierra Nevada. The wood is fine- and close-grained, 
elastic, very strong and durable. The tree is scarce and the wood so 
highly prized that it no longer gets into the general market. 
Division II.—ANGIOSPERMAE 
Class I. —Dicotyledons 
RANUNCULACEAE. BUTTERCUP FAMILY 
Herbs with alternate leaves (except Clematis). Parts of the flower 
all distinct and borne on the receptacle. Stamens numerous. Pistils 
several, 1-celled. Fruit a pod, achene or rarely a berry. Sepals often 
petal-like and petals none.—About 680 species, mainly in north temperate 
and sub-arctic regions. 
Ovary several to many-ovuled ; fruit a follicle or berry; herbs. 
Flowers regular. 
Petals not spurred. 
Flowers solitary, rarely 2 to 3, large; petals 5 or 6, brownish- 
red .1. Paeonia 
Flowers many, in racemes, white; petals 1 to 10, minute or none. 
2. Actaea 
Petals 5, prolonged backward into hollow spurs.3. Aquilegia 
Flowers irregular, complete; petals 4; upper sepal strongly spurred. 
4. Delphinium 
Ovary usually with one ovule; fruit an achene. 
Leaves alternate or basal; herbs. 
Petals none. 
Cauline leaves in a single involucral whorl of 3; flowers perfect, 
mostly large, the sepals petal-like.5. Anemone. 
