Fig. 262.—A Microcachrys: female cone (2/1). A’ A single carpel with its ovule. B Dacrydium: branch with female flower (3/1). B’ The flower; cp the bract; ar the aril; ov ovule. C Podocarpus: female flower with 2 ovules. D Another female flower with 1 ovule, in longitudinal section.
Fig. 263.—Taxus baccata: branch with two ripe seeds (nat. size).
C. Taxeæ. The female flower is reduced to one ovule, which is situated terminally on an axis which bears 2–3 pairs of opposite, scale-like bracteoles; on this account the Taxeæ form a very isolated group among the Coniferæ.—Taxus (T. baccata, the Yew-tree). Diœcious. The female flower consists of only one ovule, placed at the end of a short secondary branch (Fig. [264]), which is studded with scale-like leaves. The aril when ripe is thick, fleshy, and scarlet (sometimes yellow), and only loosely envelopes the seed (Fig. [263]). The leaves are scattered, flat, linear, and pointed (Fig. [263], [264]). The short male flowers have 5–8 pollen-sacs, pendent from the stamens, and are surrounded at their bases by scale-like bracteoles (Fig. [243]). Torreya (4 species, N. America and Japan) is closely allied to Taxus. The aril ultimately fuses with the woody inner integument, and hence the ovule becomes drupaceous, as in Cephalotaxaceæ.
Fig. 264.—Taxus baccata: A shoot of Taxus with female flowers at the time when the ovules are ready for pollination. B Leaf with flower in its axil (nat. size). C Longitudinal median section through a female shoot; v growing point of primary shoot; a commencement of aril; i integument; n nucellus; m micropyle.
Uses. Taxus baccata is usually planted in gardens, especially in hedges. Its wood is very hard and is used for wood-carving. The shoots are poisonous, but not the aril, which is often eaten by children and by birds.
Family 2. Pinoideæ.
The four orders differ from one another partly in the arrangement of the leaves (Cupressaceæ have opposite or verticillately placed leaves, flowers, and inflorescences; in the others they are placed spirally), but chiefly in the greater or less degree of union which takes place between the female flower (the leaf-like “symphyllodium”) and its supporting cover-scale, and in the position of the ovules (the micropyle being turned upwards or downwards). The “cone-scales” in Abietaceæ are formed by “symphyllodia” alone, in the others by their union with the cover-scale.