1. Torreya taxifolia Arn. Stinking Cedar. Torreya.
Leaves slightly falcate, 1½′ long, about ⅛′ 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, ⅛′ long, and inclosed at the base by broad thin rounded scales. Seed fully grown at midsummer, slightly obovoid, dark purple, 1′—1¼′ long, ¾′ 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 ½′ 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.
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′—3½′ long, 1/16′—⅛′ wide. Flowers appearing in March and April; male with broadly ovate acute scales; female nearly ¼′ long, with oblong-ovate rounded scales. Seed ovoid or oblong-ovoid, 1′—1½′ 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 ⅓′—½′ 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.