Chapter 4 TAXACE .

Slightly resinous trees and shrubs, producing when cut vigorous stump shoots, with fissured or scaly bark, light-colored durable close-grained wood, slender branchlets, linear-lanceolate entire rigid acuminate spirally disposed leaves, usually appearing 2-ranked by a twist in their short compressed petioles and persistent for many years, and small ovoid acute buds.

Flowers opening in early spring from buds formed the previous autumn, di?cious or mon?cious, axillary and solitary, surrounded by the persistent decussate scales of the buds, the male composed of numerous filaments united into a column, each filament surmounted by several more or less united pendant pollen-cells; the female of a single erect ovule, becoming at maturity a seed with a hard bony shell, raised upon or more or less surrounded by the enlarged and fleshy aril-like disk of the flower; embryo axile, in fleshy ruminate or uniform albumen; cotyledons 2, shorter than the superior radicle. Of the ten genera widely distributed over the two hemispheres, two occur in North America.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.

Filaments dilated into 4 pollen-sacs united into a half ring; seeds drupe-like, green or purple, ripening at the end of the second season; albumen ruminate.

1. Torreya.

Filaments dilated into a globose head of 4-8 connate pollen-sacs; seeds berry-like, scarlet, ripening at the end of the first season; albumen uniform.

2. Taxus.

1. TORREYA ARN.

Tumion Raf.

Glabrous f?tid or pungent aromatic trees, with fissured bark and verticillate or opposite spreading or drooping branches. Leaves thin, long-pointed, abruptly contracted at base, dark green, lustrous and slightly rounded above, thickened and revolute on the margins, with pale bands of stomata on each side of the midvein on the lower surface. Flowers di?cious; the male crowded in the axils of adjacent leaves, on shoots of the previous year, oval or oblong, composed of 6 or 8 close whorls each of 4 stamens, subverticillately arranged on a slender axis; filaments stout and expanded above into 4 globose yellow pollen-sacs united into a half ring, their connectives produced above the cells; the female on shoots of the year less numerous and scattered, sessile, the ovule surrounded by and finally inclosed in an ovoid urn-shaped fleshy sac, and becoming at the end of the second season an oblong-ovate yellow-brown seed, rounded and apiculate at apex, acute and marked at base by the large dark hilum; seed-coat thick and woody, its inner layer folded into the thick white albumen, surrounded and finally inclosed in the thick green or purple enlarged disk of the flower composed of thin flat easily separable fibers, splitting longitudinally when ripe into two parts and separating from the basal scales persistent on the short stout stalk of the seed.

Torreya is now confined to Florida and Georgia, western California, Japan, the island of Quelpart, and central and northern China. Four species are recognized. Of the exotic species the Japanese Torreya nucifera S. & Z. is occasionally cultivated in the eastern states.

The genus is named in honor of Dr. John Torrey, the distinguished American botanist.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Leaves slightly rounded on the back, pale below; leaves, branches, and wood f?tid; branchlets gray or yellowish green.

1. T. taxifolia (C).

Leaves nearly flat, green below; leaves, branches and wood pungent-aromatic; branchlets reddish brown.

2. T. californica (G).

1. Torreya taxifolia Arn. Stinking Cedar. Torreya.

Tumion taxifolium Greene.

Leaves slightly falcate, 1?′ long, about ?′ wide, somewhat rounded, dark green and lustrous above, paler and marked below with broad bands of stomata. Flowers appearing in March and April; male with pale yellow anthers; female broadly ovoid, with a dark purple fleshy covering to the ovule, ?′ long, and inclosed at the base by broad thin rounded scales. Seed fully grown at midsummer, slightly obovoid, dark purple, 1′-1?′ long, ?′ thick, with a thin leathery covering, a light red-brown seed-coat furnished on the inner surface with 2 opposite longitudinal thin ridges extending from the base toward the apex, and conspicuously ruminate albumen.

A tree, occasionally 40° high, with a short trunk 1°-2° in diameter, whorls of spreading slightly pendulous branches forming a rather open pyramidal head tapering from a broad base. Bark ?′ thick, brown faintly tinged with orange color, and irregularly divided by broad shallow fissures into wide low ridges slightly rounded on the back and covered with thin closely appressed scales. Wood hard, strong, clear bright yellow, with thin lighter colored sapwood; largely used for fence-posts.

Distribution. On bluffs along the eastern bank of the Apalachicola River, Florida, from River Junction to the neighborhood of Bristol, Liberty County, and in the southwestern corner of Decatur County, Georgia (R. M. Harper). Rare and local.

Now often planted in the public grounds and gardens of Tallahassee, Florida.

2. Torreya californica Torr. California Nutmeg.

Tumion californicum Greene.

Leaves slightly falcate, nearly flat, dark green and lustrous on the upper, somewhat paler and marked below with a narrow band of stomata, tipped with slender callous points, 1′-3?′ long, 1/16′-?′ wide. Flowers appearing in March and April; male with broadly ovate acute scales; female nearly ?′ long, with oblong-ovate rounded scales. Seed ovoid or oblong-ovoid, 1′-1?′ long, light green more or less streaked with purple.

A tree, 50°-70° but occasionally 100° high, with a trunk 1°-2° or rarely 4° in diameter, and whorls of spreading slender slightly pendulous branches forming a handsome pyramidal and in old age a round-topped head. Bark ?′-?′ thick, gray-brown tinged with orange color, deeply and irregularly divided by broad fissures into narrow ridges covered with elongated loosely appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, clear light yellow, with thin nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for fence-posts.

Distribution. Borders of mountain streams, California, nowhere common but widely distributed from Mendocino County to the Santa Cruz Mountains in the coast region and along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada from Eldorado to Tulare Counties at altitudes of 3000°-5000° above the sea; most abundant and of its largest size on the northern coast ranges.

Rarely cultivated as an ornamental tree in California and western Europe.

2. TAXUS L. Yew.

Trees or shrubs, with brown or dark purple scaly bark, and spreading usually horizontal branches. Leaves flat, often falcate, gradually narrowed at the base, dark green, smooth and keeled on the upper surface, paler, papillate, and stomatiferous on the lower surface, their margins slightly thickened and revolute. Flowers di?cious or mon?cious: the male composed of a slender stipe bearing at the apex a globular head of 4-8 pale yellow stamens consisting of 4-6 conic pendant pollen-sacs peltately connate from the end of a short filament; the female sessile in the axils of the upper scale-like bracts of a short axillary branch, the ovule erect, sessile on a ring-like disk, ripening in the autumn into an ovoid-oblong seed gradually narrowed and short-pointed at apex, marked at base by the much-depressed hilum, about ?′ long, entirely or nearly surrounded by but free from the now thickened succulent translucent sweet scarlet aril-like disk of the flower open at apex; seed-coat thick, of two layers, the outer thin and membranaceous or fleshy, the inner much thicker and somewhat woody; albumen uniform.

Taxus with six or seven species, which can be distinguished only by their leaf characters and habit, is widely distributed through the northern hemisphere, and is found in eastern North America where two species occur, in Pacific North America, Mexico, Europe, northern Africa, western and southern Asia, China, and Japan. Of the exotic species the European, African, and Asiatic Taxus baccata L., and its numerous varieties, is often cultivated in the United States, especially in the more temperate parts of the country, and is replaced with advantage by the hardier Taxus cuspidata S. & Z., of eastern Asia in the northern states, where the native shrubby Taxus canadensis Marsh, with mon?cious flowers is sometimes cultivated.

Taxus, from τ?ξο?, is the classical name of the Yew-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.

Leaves usually short, yellow-green.

1. T. brevifolia (G).

Leaves elongated, usually falcate, dark green.

2. T. floridana (C).

1. Taxus brevifolia Nutt. Yew.

Leaves ?′-1′ long, about 1/16′ wide, dark yellow-green above, rather paler below, with stout midribs, and slender yellow petioles 1/12′ long, persistent for 5-12 years. Flowers and fruit as in the genus.

A tree, usually 40°-50° but occasionally 70°-80° high, with a tall straight trunk 1°-2° or rarely 4?° in diameter, frequently unsymmetrical, with one diameter much exceeding the other, and irregularly lobed, with broad rounded lobes, and long slender horizontal or slightly pendulous branches forming a broad open conical head. Bark about ?′ thick and covered with small thin dark red-purple scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, bright red, with thin light yellow sapwood; used for fence-posts and by the Indians of the northwest coast for paddles, spear-handles, bows, and other small articles.

Distribution. Banks of mountain streams, deep gorges, and damp ravines, growing usually under large coniferous trees; nowhere abundant, but widely distributed usually in single individuals or in small clumps from the extreme southern part of Alaska, southward along the coast ranges of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, where it attains its greatest size; along the coast ranges of California as far south as the Bay of Monterey, and along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to Tulare County at altitudes between 5000° and 8000° above the sea-level, ranging eastward in British Columbia to the Selkirk Mountains, and over the mountains of Washington and Oregon to the western slopes of the continental divide in northern Montana; in the interior much smaller than near the coast and often shrubby in habit.

Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of western Europe.

2. Taxus floridana Chapm. Yew.

Leaves usually conspicuously falcate, ?′ to nearly 1′ long, 1/16′-1/12′ wide, dark green above, pale below, with obscure midribs and slender petioles about 1/16′ in length. Flowers appearing in March. Fruit ripening in October.

A bushy tree, rarely 25° high, with a short trunk occasionally 1° in diameter, and numerous stout spreading branches; more often shrubby in habit and 12°-15° tall. Bark ?′ thick, dark purple-brown, smooth, compact, occasionally separating into large thin irregular plate-like scales. Wood heavy, hard, very close-grained, dark brown tinged with red, with thin nearly white sapwood.

Distribution. River bluffs and ravines on the eastern bank of the Apalachicola River, in Gadsden County, Florida, from Aspalaga to the neighborhood of Bristol.

Class 2. ANGIOSPERM?.

Carpels or pistils consisting of a closed cavity containing the ovules and becoming the fruit.

Division 1. Monocotyledons.

Stems with woody fibres distributed irregularly through them, but without pith or annual layers of growth. Parts of the flower in 3's; ovary superior; embryo with a single cotyledon. Leaves parallel-veined, alternate, long-persistent, without stipules.