B. Dwarf forms with leaves radially arranged on the branchlets.
5. Var. ericoides.
- Taxus baccata ericoides, Carrière, Conif. 519 (1855).
- Taxus baccata empetrifolia, Hort.
A low shrub with ascending branches. Leaves generally radially arranged, but occasionally two- ranked, uniform in size, falcate, short, acute, tapering to a fine cartilaginous point.
6. Var. nana.
- Taxus baccata nana. Knight, Syn. Conif. 52.
- Taxus Foxii, Hort.
A dwarf shrub. Leaves generally radially arranged, some being two-ranked; very variable in length, but always short, straight or falcate, often twisted or curved.
C. Varieties with leaves distichously arranged, assuming pendulous, prostrate, and other non-fastigiate habits.
7. Var, Dovastoni, Dovaston Yew.
- Taxus baccata Dovastoni, Loudon, loc. cit., 2082 (1838).
A tree or large shrub, with spreading branches, arising in verticils, and becoming very pendulous at their extremities. Leaves dark green with an abruptly mucronate apex.
An account of the original tree, from which this variety has been propagated, is given in Loudon and in Leighton's Flora of Shropshire.[1] This tree was planted as a seedling about the year 1777 at Westfelton, near Shrewsbury. It was in vigorous health in 1900, and measured then 8 feet 10 inches in girth at 4½ feet from the ground. Nineteen years previously its girth was 7 feet 11 inches. It is described as having a single leader, with branches pendulous to the ground. The original tree is monoecious; one branch only producing fertile berries, from which seedlings were raised, which reproduced the habit of the parent.[1] Barron[2] states that all his Dovaston yews are female trees. Carrière[3] sowed seeds of this form on many occasions, and the offspring was always like the common yew, doubtless due to his Dovaston yews being fertilised by the pollen of ordinary yew trees in the vicinity.
Carrière further states that MM. Thibaut and Keteleer obtained in 1865, from seeds of this variety, plants which were in the proportion of threefourths variegated in foliage and one-fourth green; but in no case was the pendulous habit observed. The variegated plants passed into commerce as Dovastoni variegata; but these were simply ordinary variegated yews. A sub-variety, however, occurs in which the leaves of the Dovaston yew are variegated with yellow; and this is known as var. Dovastoni aureo-variegata.
8. Var. pendula.—Growing at Kew, this is an irregularly branching wide, low,
