Taxaceae 25 
Gymnosperms (Cone Bearers) 
TAXACEAE Yew Family 
Shrubs and trees, resin-bearing (except 7axus), evergreen (ours) or deciduous. 
Leaves linear, alternate. Pollen-sacs borne separately, in clusters or solitary. Ovule 1. 
Fruit a fleshy ring almost covering the one hard bony seed, green or purple or red (ours). 
Cotyledons 2. 
TAXUS YEW 
Shrubs or trees. Leaves short-petioled, flat, blue-green, rather sharply pointed. 
Cones or flower-bunches sessile or subsessile, very small. Staminate cones of a few 
scaly bracts bearing 4—-8 stamens of 4—6 pollen-sacs from | common filament. Fruit a 
red berry. (Gk. toxon—bow; referring to use of wood.) W. C. 
T. brevifolia Nutt. (Western Yew) 
PINACEAE Pine Family 
Shrubs or trees, resinous, mostly evergreen. Leaves either needles or scales (ours) 
or flat and wide. Wood with tracheids mostly marke? by large disks. Ovules and 
pollen-sacs in sepdrate cones or aments. Staminate cones consisting of numerous 2—6- 
celled anthers. Pollen-grains often with 2 inflated sacs. Pistillate cones consisting either 
of scales only, or of scales and bracts, usually dry and woody, sometimes berry-like, 
usually more than |-seeded when berry-like. Scales bearing 1—several ovules (usually 
2) on the inner surface, few to many, woody or papery or fleshy. Seeds with or without 
wings. Cotyledons 2—several. 
A. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3, not sheathed when in 3’s, scale-like (except 
sometimes in Juniperus); cone scales 12 or fewer, decussate. 
B. Fruit a bluish berry; leaves often awl-shaped, often scale-like, often both forms 
on the same plant. JUNIPERUS (p. 26) - 
BB. Fruit a dry woody cone; leaves all scale-like. 
C. Leaves 4 in a whorl; cone-scales of 3 quite unlike pairs; seeds unequally 2- 
winged. LIBOCEDRUS (p. 26) 
CC. Leayes. opposite; cone ogee alike or nearly so; seeds equally 2-winged. 
D.  Pistillate cones globose, their scales 4—6 and peltate; staminate cones ob- 
long, their scales ovate and not peltate. THUJA (p. 26) 
DD.  Pistillate cones oblong, their scales 8—1I2 and not peltate; staminate 
cones globose, their scales peltate. CHAMAECYPARIS (p. 27) 
AA. Leaves alternate or in bunches of 2—many, sheathed at the base if in 2——5- 
leaves bunches, linear, not scale-like (except sometimes in Sequoia), cone scales more 
than 12. 
E. Leaves of 2 forms; the one lanceolate, flat, 6—13 mm. long; the other ovate 
or ovate-oblong, keeled, 5—-7 mm. long; seeds 5—-7 under each scale. 
SEQUOIA (p. 27) 
EE. Leaves of only 1 form; seeds 2 under each scale. 
F. Leaves solitary. 
G. Branchlets not roughened by persistent leaf-bases; bracts either longer than 
the cone-scales, or else shorter and the cones erect and their scales dropping 
from the axis: 
H. Leaves flat or 4-sided, often notched at apex; leaf-scars circular; mature 
cones erect; scales dropping from the cone-axis; bract usually shorter than 
the scales. ABIES (p. 27) 
