torrett

A variant of toret. Torreya (tor'i-ä), n. [NL. (Arnott, 1838), named after Dr. John Torrey, 1796-1873, profe or of botany at Columbia College, New York.] A genus of conifers, of the tribe Taxeæ, distinguished from the related genus Taxus by the guished complete or partial attachment of the seed to its surrounding capsule or berry, and by anther-cells being connate in a semicircle. It in 2 Torreya tax i folia . 1, branch with male flowers; 2, branch with fruit; a, a male ament. cludes 4 species, 2 natives of China (see kay a ) and Japan, the others American - T. tax i folia of Florida and T. Cali fornica of California. They are evergreen trees, with flat, linear, two-ranked leaves resembling those of the yew, but longer, and with a larger ovoid drupaceous fruit, sometimes 14 inches long. The Florida species, often called Torrey - tree or savin, is locally known as stinking cedar (which see, under stink ). The western species is the Cali fornia nutmeg. Torr i cell i an (tor-i-sel'i-an or tor-i-chel'i-an), a. [ inches in length, open at one end and her- Apparatus for IMG:content-0626.jpg:[graphic] Torr i cell i an metically sealed at the other, such as is used Experiment. in the barometer. – Torr i cell i an vacuum, My marrow melts, my fainting spirits fry, In th' torrid zone of thy meridian eye. Quarles, Emblems, v. 15. Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go. Goldsmith, Des. Vil., 1. 343. 2. Burning; scorching; parching. The brandish'd sword of God before them blazed, Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat, And vapour as the Libyan air adust, Began to parch that temperate clime. Milton , P. L., xii. 634. torrid Torrid zone, in geog., that part of the earth's surface which lies between the tropics: so named from the character of its climate. Taking the annual quantity of heat received from the sun per unit surface at the equator as 1,000, the relative quantities received by the torrid, temperate, and frigid zones are respectively 975, 757, and 454.