The only needle-leaved tree in this section is the Yew, and this is the only one I shall describe; as though the Salisburia and some of the New Zealand resinous trees are included in it by modern botanists, the latter are at present very rare in this country; and the Salisburia, though it has been introduced more than a hundred years, and is frequently found in shrubberies, has not yet produced fruit in Britain.
[Illustration: FIG 101.--THE COMMON YEW (_Taxus baccata_).]
The common Yew (_Taxus baccata_) has the male and female flowers on different plants. The catkins of the male flowers consist of a number of scales, out of which the anthers grow like a cluster of primroses, as shown, magnified, in _fig._ 101 at _a_. The female flowers somewhat resemble those of the Juniper; the ovary being enveloped in scales (_b_), from which it gradually emerges as it swells (_c_), till at last, when ripe (_d_), it opens at the top, and displays the ripe nut enveloped in a red juicy cup. The wood of the Yew is remarkably tough, and the growth of the plant is very slow.
To these may be added the very singular plants comprised in the order Cycadaceæ, which are on the debatable ground between the exogenous and endogenous plants. They bear cones like the pines and firs, but in their leaves, and the manner in which they unroll them, they resemble the ferns, and in the outside of their stems the palms; while from the wood being in concentric circles, they must be classed among the Exogens. It would be unsuitable to a work like this to enter into any of the discussions of botanists respecting these curious plants; it may be sufficient here to say that they are considered to be trees, the central cylindrical part being called the trunk; the soft pith in which, in some of the kinds of Cycas, is manufactured into a spurious sort of sago. The roughness on the stem arises from the remains of the footstalks of old leaves. The leaves are pinnate, and unroll instead of unfolding. The flowers are male and female, both of which are produced in cones in Zamia; and the male flowers in cones in Cycas, while the female ones appear on the margin, and in the notches of abortive leaves, which spring in a mass from the centre.