The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 1/Taxus

by Henry John Elwes and Augustine Henry

 

TAXUS

 

Taxus, Linnæus, Gen. Pl. 312 (1737); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. Pl. iii. 431 (1880); Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxx. 7 (1893); Pilger, in Engler, Pflanzenreich, iv. 5, Taxaceæ, 110 (1903).

 

Evergreen trees or shrubs belonging to the division Taxaceae of the order Coniferæ. Bark reddish or reddish brown, thin and scaly. Branches spreading, giving off branchlets, of one kind only, irregularly alternate, surrounded at their bases by brownish scales. Buds globular or ovoid, of imbricated scales. Leaves inserted on the branchlets in a spiral order, on upright shoots spreading radially, on horizontal shoots disposed by twisting on their petioles in one plane in a pectinate arrangement, the upper and lower leaves being of the same length, with their dorsal surfaces turned upwards and their ventral surfaces downwards. In fastigiate varieties all, or most, of the branchlets assume an erect position, and the leaves in consequence are arranged radially. The leaves are linear, flat, with recurved margins, dark green above, paler green below; the lower surface only bearing stomata, which never form conspicuous white bands; narrowed at the base into a short petiole, arising from a linear cushion on the twig; mucronate or acute at the apex and without a resin-canal.

Flowers diœcious, or in rare individuals monœcious, on the under surface of the branchlets of the preceding year, in the axils of the leaves, the female flowers being less numerous than the male flowers. Male flowers composed of a stalk, girt at its base by imbricated scales, and bearing above a globose head of 6–14 stamens with short filaments. The stamen is expanded above into a peltate connective, which bears on its lower surface 5 to 9 pollen sacs, united with each other and with the filament. The female flowering shoot, arising out of the axil of the leaf, is composed of a number of imbricated scales, in the axil of the uppermost one of which is borne an ovule, placed so close to the apex of the shoot as to appear terminal; in the scale next below a bud occurs, which occasionally develops into a second ovule. The ovule, which has a small membranous disc at its base, projects out of the scales by its micropyle. Seed sessile in a fleshy, juicy cup, forming an aril (the enlarged disc), open at the top and free from the seed in its upper part. The seed variable in form, 2, 3, or 4-angled, is generally ellipsoid and has a ligneous testa, containing oily white albumen, in the upper part of which is an axile straight cylindrical minute embryo with two cotyledons.

Yews differ from all other Coniferæ in the character of the fruit. They resemble in foliage certain other genera of Taxaceae, but are readily distinguishable as follows:—

Taxus.—Branchlets standing irregularly alternate on the branches. Leaves stalked, greenish underneath with no definite bands of stomata. Buds composed of imbricated scales.

Pruminopitys.—Branchlets and leaves as in Taxus, but with valvate bud-scales.

Cephalotaxus.—Branchlets opposite. Leaves like the yew in consistence, but with white bands beneath showing definite lines of stomata.

Torreya.—Branchlets sub-opposite. Leaves rigid and spine-pointed with white bands beneath, showing definite lines of stomata.

Saxegothæa.—Branchlets in whorls, ascending at an angle. Leaves with bases decurrent on the shoots, and with white bands beneath which 4ire narrow and close to the median line.

The genus is widely distributed over large parts of North America, Europe, Algeria, and Asia, and occurs sporadically in the mountains of Sumatra, Celebes, and the Philippines. Seven distinct species have been described, each confined to a definite territory. These species are, however, rather geographical forms, only differing from one another in trivial characters of foliage and habit. The view taken by Sir Joseph Hooker^[1] and by Pilger, the latest monographer of the genus, that they only constitute one species is probably correct. Many of the supposed specific distinctions, such as the density of the foliage on the branchlets, the size and form of the leaf, etc., are due in most instances to the influence of soil, shade, and climate. Moreover, in the varieties of the common yew, which are known to have arisen as sports in the wild state or in cultivation, greater differences occur in the characters of habit, foliage, and fruit, than are observable in the so-called species. In the account which follows, the geographical forms will be treated as varieties.

 

 

TAXUS BACCATA, Yew

Taxus baccata, Linnæus, Sp. Pl. 1040 (1753); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2066 (1838); Lowe, Yew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland (1897); Kent, in Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 126 (1900); Kirchner, Loew, and Schroter, Lebengesch. Blutenpfl. Mitteleuropas, i. 61 (1904).

 

The chief characters of the species have been given in the generic description. The different geographical forms are distinguished as follows:—

1. Var. typica. Common Yew.—A tree or shrub. Leaves falcate, acute, or acuminate, the apex diminishing gradually into a cartilaginous mucro; median nerve only slightly prominent above. Buds ovoid or globose, of closely imbricated brownish, rounded scales, usually not keeled on the back.

In certain Himalayan specimens the leaves are long and narrow, with a long acuminate apex, and the buds have keeled scales. Intermediate forms occur; and all Indian botanists and foresters seem to be agreed that the Himalayan yew cannot be separated from the European form even as a variety.^[2]

2. Var. cuspidata (Taxus cuspidata, S. et Z.^[3]), Japanese Yew.—A tree or shrub. Leaves straight, scarcely falcate, median nerve prominent above, apex giving off abruptly a short mucro. Buds oblong, composed of somewhat loosely imbricated scales, which are ovate, very acute and keeled. In cultivated specimens the under surface of the leaves is yellow in colour, the buds being bright chestnut brown.

3. Var. sinensis,^[4] Chinese Yew.—A tree. Leaves short, rigid, median nerve not prominent above, apex rounded and giving off abruptly a short mucro. Buds ovoid, brownish, composed of densely imbricated scales, which are ovate, obtuse, and not keeled.

4. Var. brevifolia (Taxus brevifolia, Nutt.^[5]), Pacific Coast Yew.—A tree. Leaves falcate, short, median nerve slightly prominent above, apex abruptly mucronate. Buds large, with loosely imbricated yellowish green scales, which are lanceolate, mucronate, and keeled.

5. Var. canadensis (Taxus canadensis, Marshall^[6]), Canadian Yew.—A low, prostrate shrub. Leaves narrow, falcate; median nerve slightly prominent above, apex abruptly mucronate. Buds globose, small, with somewhat loosely imbricated, greenish, ovate, obtuse, keeled scales.

6. Var. Floridana (Taxus floridana, Chapman^[7]), Florida Yew.—A shrub or very small tree. Leaves very narrow, median nerve scarcely prominent, apex acute and gradually passing into the mucro. Buds small, with loosely imbricated, ovate, obtuse scales.

7. Var. globosa (Taxus globosa, Schl.^[8]), Mexican Yew.—A small tree. Leaves variable, narrow, straight, acuminate, mucronate. Buds of numerous ovate, rounded, obtuse, keeled scales.

 

Distribution

1. Common Yew.—All authorities are agreed that the yew was formerly much more widely spread in Europe than is the case to-day, Conwentz^[9] relies on three points to prove the ancient wider distribution:—(i) fossil remains; (2) prehistoric and historic antiquities; (3) place-names. He considers that nearly all the fossil remains of the Tertiary age, which have been described as species of Taxus, are not really yew. In more recent geographical strata, however, numerous fossil remains of yew have been found. Clement Reid^[10] gives the following list of deposits in which yew occurs in England: —

Neolithic.—Common in peat below the sea -level in the Thames valley and Fenland; Portobello, near Edinburgh.

Interglacial.—Hoxne, Suffolk.

Preglacial (Cromer Forest-bed).—Mundesley, Bacton, Happisburgh (in Norfolk), Pakefield (in Suffolk).

Conwentz has found fossil remains in numerous localities in England and Ireland; but his promised paper on the subject has not yet been published. Guided by place-names in Germany, he dug up fossil yew in many localities in that country.

He^[11] found under pure peat, 3 feet thick, in the Steller Moss not far from Hanover, some hundreds of stems of yews. He says that it is never found in the ramparts of prehistoric forts, but that it was often planted on fortifications by the knights of the Middle Ages.

He has prepared a list of some hundreds of English, Scottish, and especially Irish names of places taken from the yew. The Gaelic name for the yew is iubhar; and in Irish and Scottish place-names this generally appears Anglicised as ure, being sometimes corrupted into o or u simply. Youghal means yew-wood. Dromanure and Knockanure signify yew-hill. Glenure is the yew-glen. Gortinure and Mayo mean yew-field.

Conwentz examined prehistoric wooden boxes, buckets, and other vessels in the British Museum and in the Dublin Science and Art Museum, and identified the wood of some thirty articles as that of yew.

Yew is occasionally found in peat-mosses in Ireland, but is exceedingly rare as compared with pine and oak. Mr. R.D. Cole, who has kindly sent me a specimen of bog-yew, drew attention in 1903 to the occurrence of yew in Ballyfin bog in Queen's County. It was so plentiful there in former times that the farmers in the neighbourhood used it for gate - posts and in roofing houses. Mr. J. Adams has published a short account^[12] of Mr. Cole's discovery, from which it appears that the cross-section of one trunk, 2 feet in diameter, showed no less than 395 annual rings. Another specimen showed 123 rings, only occupying a width of 1½ inches. Mr. Cole informs me that in no case where the root was vertical did he find more than 18 inches deep of peat beneath; in other parts of the bog where the yews were found more deeply buried, their roots were twisted and out of their natural position, and were probably carried there by floods. Apparently then, the yew, unlike the common pine, never grew in any great depth of peat.

Large trunks of yew were formerly dug up on the shore of Magilligan in Co. Derry, between the rocks and the sea.^[13] On the east side of Glenveigh, in Co. Donegal, thick logs are reported to be often found in the peat.^[14]

In the Kew Museum there is a specimen of fossil yew, which was dug up in Hatfield Chase, near Thorne, Yorkshire, from under a bed of clay 6 feet in thickness; and another specimen is labelled, "Submarine Forest, Stogursey, Somersetshire."

Professor Seeley, F.R.S., in a very interesting letter, dated January 1904, says that he has seen "the broken stumps of yew trees standing as they grew by scores, possibly by hundreds, in Mildenhall Fen, about 1865, when the peat was entirely removed so as to prepare the land for corn. One tree sketched by Mr. Marshall, at that time Coroner for the Isle of Ely, from a section between Ely and Downham Market, showed the yew growing in sandy gravel with black flints. The roots were entirely in the gravel. Above the gravel is the 'Buttery Clay,' 2 feet 6 inches thick, into which the trunk of the tree extended vertically, rising about i foot into the Upper Peat, which was 4 feet 6 inches thick. This clay is marine, and is the delta mud of the Cam and the Ouse deposited on the Lower Peat and beyond it, where a depression of land admitted the sea over the Isle of Ely and killed the forests. A little part of the Scrobicularia Clay is 6 feet thick, and the peat above it 18 feet thick. The common trees in the peat there are pines and oaks. I have never seen the beech, and never heard of the lime. About the pine there is no doubt. It occurred in the forests of the Forest Bed of Norfolk, and at several localities in the peat of the fens, almost always on clay covered by peat."

In the present day the common yew is met with growing wild in most parts of Europe, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic to the western provinces of Russia. It has only recently become extinct in the Azores. It also occurs in Algeria, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, North Persia, the Himalayas, and Burma. The yew also extends into the mountains of Sumatra, South Celebes, and the Philippines.^[15]

In England the yew is indigenous on all the chalky Downs of Sussex, Hampshire, and Wilts. According to Bromfield,^[16] the yew is one of the few natural ornaments of our South Downs, over the bare sides and summits of which it is scattered abundantly as single trees, frequently of great size and antiquity; sometimes in groups; more rarely forming groves in the bottoms or valleys between these rounded hills, or in the steep woods which clothe their sheltered slopes: He mentions as one of the most remarkable of these yew groves, that at Kingsley Bottom, near Chichester. The yew is remarkably plentiful on the banks of the Wye, about Chepstow and Tintern, and grows in the most inaccessible positions on the limestone cliffs there, as it does also on the rocks of Matlock. The rocks at Borrodale and on Conzie Scar, near Kendal, are also truly natural stations of the yew.^[17] The yew is frequent in the woods of Monmouthshire, and in the ancient forest of Cranbourne Chase in Dorsetshire.^[18] In the Wyre Forest it is certainly wild, occurring now as isolated trees amidst the beech and oak. In Seckley Wood, on the Severn, there are indigenous yew trees, one of which is remarkable for its curious pendulous habit.^[19] It ascends to 1500 feet in Northumberland."

Concerning the occurrence of the yew as a wild plant in Scotland our information is scanty. Hooker^[20] states that it is indigenous as far north as Aberdeen and Argyll. White^[21] records it from Breadalbane in Perthshire. Lightfoot,^[22] writing in 1777, says it was found here and there in the Highlands in a truly wild state, and that there were the remains of an old wood of yew at Glenure in Upper Lorn, Argyllshire.

It is now of rare occurrence in the wild state in Ireland. According to Praeger,^[23] it is found on rocks, cliffs, in old woods, and on lake shores, now almost confined to the west. It is recorded from various localities from Kerry to Donegal, and Praeger considers that some of these instances may represent the last remnants of aboriginal stock; but it is impossible now to say definitely, as introduced trees grow around the supposed wild ones. The yews in the rough wood at Avondale, in Wicklow, may be wild. Many years ago Moore^[24] found the yew growing at Benyevena, in Co. Derry, in the crevices of the rocks, at an elevation of 1200 feet, when it assumed the appearance of a low shrub. In Smith's Kerry (1756), it is stated that "the yew grew in prodigious quantities in all our southern baronies until it was destroyed for making coals for the iron-works."^[25]

In Norway the yew is called "Barlind," and, according to Schubeler,^[26] grows wild only in the south, especially along the coast, the farthest point north known to him being near Sondmore, in lat. 62° 30" N., where it attains the height of 32 feet. In the east it does not extend farther north than Hurdalen, lat. 60° 35', where it attains a height of 8–10 feet. Schubeler mentions as the largest yews known to him in Norway some at Tufte, on the Christiana fjord, which are 42–43 feet high, with a girth of 3 feet 4 inches to 3 feet 9 inches. The thickest one was, however, 4 feet 10 inches at 2 feet from the ground. He figures (p. 458, fig. 84) what is very rarely seen in England, a self-layered yew, and says that he found in a wood at Hallangen a tree 24 feet in length with a diameter of only 6 inches.

In Sweden the yew grows as far north as lat. 63° 10', and thrives so well that a tree at Maltesholm, in Scania, is said to have had a diameter of 89 centimetres when only 75 years old. It occurs on the Swedish Island of Aland (lat. 60°), but only as a small shrub.

Its northerly limit in Russia appears to be Esthonia, its eastern limit also passing through that province, and continuing southwards through Livonia, Courland, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and the Crimea. It occurs also in Denmark,^[27] but only in one place wild, viz., at Munkehjerg, the beautifully situated hotel near the town of Veile, in Jutland. Formerly the yew was much more widely spread in Denmark, but owing to the value of the wood the wild trees have been destroyed in most parts of the country.

In Belgium, where the yew is often planted, its occurrence in the wild state has been denied by some authors. Wildeman and Durand,^[28] however, consider that it is probably wild in the neighbourhood of Huy and in Hainault.

In France^[29] it occurs chiefly in mountainous regions, as in the Vosges (where it is rare), Jura, Cevennes, Pyrenees, and Corsica. In the Pyrenees it ascends to 5400 feet, and, according to Bubani,^[30] is always rare (due to destruction by human agency), and only occurs on limestone and in cool and shaded situations. In France generally, it is most common on precipices and rocky spots, and nearly always on limestone. It never forms pure woods; but is, however, remarkably abundant in the forest of Sainte Baume (Department of Var), where the oldest and largest wild yew trees in France occur, some attaining a girth of 11½ feet. In Normandy, according to Gadeau de Kerville,^[31] it is not indigenous, being probably introduced at a very early period before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Cæsar. It is usually planted in churchyards and cemeteries as in England, and nowhere exceeds 19 metres (about 60 feet) in height. The largest in girth, about 33 feet, at 3 feet from the ground, stands in the churchyard of Estry (Calvados). There are also two very fine trees at the church of La Lande Patny (Orne). Several others are figured by this author, of which the one at La Haye de Routot (Eure) is remarkable, on account of having in the interior of its hollow trunk a chapel about 6 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, which was built in 1806, and dedicated to Saint Anne des Ifs by the Bishop of Evreux.

In Germany, according to Willkomm,^[32] the yew is most abundant in Pomerania, Hanover, and Thuringia, and he instances localities where it forms small pure woods. In the Darmbach forest district in the Eisenach Oberland there are, in addition to many young plants, 311 yew trees of 1 foot or more in girth of stem. On the Veronica mountain at Angelroda in Thuringia, there are about 150 yew trees, of which the largest are possibly 600 years old. Apparently there were anciently two zones of distribution of the yew in Central Europe—a northern one which extended from the Netherlands through the coast provinces of Germany to the eastern shore of the Gulf of Riga, and a southern area comprising the mountainous regions of the Vosges, Jura, Black Forest, the whole of the Alps to Croatia, and the Carpathians. The yew also occurred in the hilly land of central Germany, where, at the present time, according to Drude,^[33] it is indififerent to soil, as it grows on the muschelkalk near Gottingen, on the dolomite of Suntel in the Weser mountain district, and on primitive rock on the southern slope of the Rachel (up to 3300 feet altitude). On the dolomite it occurs as isolated trees, while in the ravines and rocky parts of Suntel it forms thick underwood. In the Bavarian Alps it ascends to 3800 feet, not being met with below 1240 feet.

In Switzerland the yew ascends in the Alps to 4660 feet. The largest and finest yew is at Geistler, near Burgdorf, at an elevation of 2400 feet above the sea. This tree is well figured in Les Arbres de la Suisse, t. xii., and is said to be 50 feet high by 12 feet in girth at 4 feet above the ground; it divides into several stems at about 10 feet up.

In Austria-Hungary the yew occurs in the Carpathians and the Alps, ascending in Transylvania to 5400 feet; and it is reported to occur in Roumania and Bulgaria.

The yew is generally distributed throughout the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula. In Spain, according to Laguna,^[34] it almost always occurs as isolated trees, and is found in all the Cordilleras from the Sierra Nevada to the Pyrenees and the mountains of Asturias, also in the Balearic Isles. He has only seen it forming pure forest in the Sierra Mariola, near to Alcoy (Valencia). In the high part of that chain on its northern slope there exist what are called the Teixeras de Agres, groups of yews belonging to the town of Agres. Here, in 1870, there were still living some hundreds of ancient yews, with some young trees.

Gadow^[35] says, "There are numerous large and small trees forming a scattered forest, between Riano and Cistierna at about 3600 feet elevation, the terrain belonging to the reddish Permian rubble. The yew tree is widely distributed throughout the Spanish mountains and on the Serra da Estrella (in Portugal), but is rare everywhere. Most of the trees are solitary and old, with decaying tops! Younger trees are ruthlessly destroyed by their branches being lopped off, to be used in the cattlefolds partly instead of straw, and partly for repairing the fences and roofs. The vernacular name is Tejo."

Willkomm^[36] states that in the high mountains of Spain it occurs as isolated stunted trees, and says that on the Sierra de la Nieve there was an old yew tree which measured only 17 feet in height, although it had a girth of 17½ feet. In the south of Spain it ascends to 6500 feet.

In Italy, according to Piccioli,^[37] the yew is found on the hills and in woods of the mountain regions of the Apennines and the Alps. It is only found in the maritime region in Liguria; but is common in Sardinia, where it ascends to 5660 feet. In Sicily it is found in the region of the olive, and occurs on Mount Etna, mixed with beech, to a height of 6000 feet. The yew, however, is not mentioned in Tornabene's Flora Ætnea.

In Greece^[38] isolated trees occur in mountain woods up to the sub-alpine region. It is recorded from near Kastania, in Pindus, Mount Olympus, and Oeta (Thessaly); Mount Parnassus, Mount Malero (Laconia), and other places.

The yew^[39] formerly occurred in the Azores, attaining timber size on Corvo and Flores, whence it was exported as a source of royal revenue. It is now apparently exterminated.

It occurs sporadically in the high mountains of Algeria,^[40] in the Atlas of Blidah, Djurdjura, and Aures. A photograph of a venerable tree in Algeria, taken by M. de Vilmorin, is reproduced in Garden and Forest, 1896, p. 265.

In the Caucasus^[41] it occurs throughout the whole territory, including Talysch, at altitudes varying from sea-level to 5660 feet.

In Asia Minor it occurs in Anatolia and Mysia, according to Boissier. Kotschy found it common in the Cilician Taurus from 6160 to 7600 feet altitude. Szovitch collected it in Armenia. It also occurs in North Persia.

Some wood^[42] found in the palaces of Nineveh, and recorded on a tablet as having been brought as "cedar" from Lebanon, proved on microscopical examination to be yew. (A.H.)

The yew, according to Gamble,^[43] is a conspicuous tree in the Himalayan forests, at 6000 to 11,000 feet altitude from Afghanistan to Bhutan. It occurs in the Khasia Hills at 5000 feet, and in Upper Burmah at 5000 to 6000 feet. Sound trees are very scarce, but a very large one cut in Sikkim in 1876 was quite sound. Gamble has measured trees 20 feet in girth; one, 16 feet in girth, had a cylindrical bole 30 feet high. Madden records a tree at Gangutri, near the source of the Ganges, 100 feet high and 15 feet in girth, which surpasses anything I know of elsewhere. I have seen fine yews at 9000-10,000 feet on the Tonglo ridge, which divides Nepal and Sikkim, and have found many orchids upon them, one of which, Cœlogyne ochracea, has lived for 24 years in my collection. The growth in India varies from 23 to 55 rings per inch of radius. The timber weighs 46 to 59 lbs. per cubic foot, and is used for bows, carrying- poles, and native furniture, and if more common would be more extensively used, as it is very strong and elastic, and works and polishes beautifully. It requires, however, long seasoning.

Sir Joseph Hooker^[44] noted that at 9500–10,000 feet on Tonglo the yew is an immense tall tree with long sparse branches and slender drooping twigs, while at Choongtam (5000–6000 feet altitude) it is small and rigid, much resembling in appearance our churchyard yew. The red bark is used as a dye and for staining the foreheads of Brahmins in Nepaul.

There is a specimen at Kew, collected by Sir George Watt in Manipur, which bore yellow berries.

In the United States^[45] there are a number of large European yew trees in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, showing that the tree must have been brought to the eastern United States more than a century ago. Sargent says that everywhere south of Cape Cod it appears to be perfectly hardy. Farther east it suffers from the cold in severe winters, and cannot be considered a desirable tree for general planting in eastern New England. T.D. Hatfield,^[46] writing from Wellesley in Massachusetts, states that the variegated form of the common yew is hardy in places where the green type perishes.

II. Japanese Yew, var. cuspidata.—Ichii in Japan, Onko of the Ainos in Hokkaido. Though Sargent says^[47] that, judging from his observations, it is confined to the island of Yezo, it is stated in the Forestry of Japan, p. 88, that it is found also in Kiso and Nikko, and it was included in the list of trees growing wild in the royal forest of Kiso, though I did not see it myself. In Nikko it is planted in the temple gardens; a fine specimen, of which I give an illustration taken at this place (Plate 53), shows how much it resembles our yew in habit and appearance. This tree was about 40 feet high by 12 in girth. In the Hokkaido it grows scattered through the lowland and hill forests, among deciduous trees and conifers, but nowhere, so far as I saw, gregariously, and attains a large size, trees of 50-60 feet high with clear trunks 2–3 feet in diameter being not very rare. It sometimes produces beautifully veined burrs, and when old is often rotten inside.

It is a favourite in gardens in Hokkaido, as trees of considerable size can be moved without killing them. The wood, which seems milder, sounder, and more free from holes and flaws than in England, is much used by the Japanese for water-tanks, pails, and baths, and is cut into handsome trays, sometimes carved, which I bought quite cheaply in Sapporo. I also procured large planks and slabs of it, measuring as much as 26 inches wide, and quite sound, such as I have never been able to get from English yews. Chopsticks, clogs, and the Aino bows are also made of yew wood, and when cut into thin shavings very pretty braid is made from it.

I was informed by Mr. N. Masaki of the Imperial Art School in Tokyo, that the semifossil wood known at Sendai as Gindai-boku is dug from the bed of the Natonigawa river, near which deposits of lignite are found. This wood was believed by the carvers at Nikko to be fossil Cryptomeria wood, but is so like the bog yew found in Great Britain in grain and colour that I have little doubt that it is yew. This wood is only procured in small pieces of irregular shape, the largest that I saw being made into a tray about 20 inches square. It is very hard, of a rich reddish brown colour, and when polished or carved is extremely handsome.

The Japanese yew also occurs in Saghalien, the Kurile Isles,^[48] Amurland, and Manchuria, Apparently it is very variable in habit, as Maximowicz^[49] regarded the Amurland plant as a mere shrub, though in one place in the mountains he saw a tree a foot in diameter. Trautvetter^[49] saw no difference between the yew in Amurland and in Europe, except that the seed of the former was smaller and more pointed.

The Japanese yew was introduced into England between the years 1854 and 1856 by Fortune,^[50] who states that he received it from Mr. Beale in Shanghai, to whom it had been sent from Japan. It was first cultivated and propagated by Mr. Glendinning of the Chiswick Nursery. It has not grown to be a tree in England so far as we know, as it assumes rather the form of a large branching shrub with two or three stems. It is usually distinguished from the other yews, as seen in cultivation, by the peculiar yellow colour of the under-surface of the leaves, which are broad, somewhat leathery in texture, and abruptly pointed. This yellow colour is not, however, confined to the Japanese yew, as it occurs in the Chinese yew, and also apparently in some Pyrenean specimens, and is perhaps due to climatic influences.

According to Sargent^[51] the Japanese yew was introduced into the eastern United States in 1862, and has proved to be perfectly hardy as far north as Boston. It grows rapidly in cultivation, and promises to become a large long-lived tree. Sargent speaks of a dwarf compact form of this plant with short dark green leaves in cultivation in the United States, which probably originated in Japanese gardens. It often appears under the name of Taxus brevifolia, but must not be confounded with the true Taxus brevifolia of the Pacific coast. This is doubtless the Taxus cuspidata, var. compacta, of the Kew Hand List, of which we have seen no specimen. Sargent has also seen in California a yew with fastigiate, somewhat spreading branches, which had been imported from Japan, evidently another garden variety of Taxus cuspidata.

III. Chinese Yew, var. sinensis.—The yew has only been found in China, in the provinces of Hupeh and Szechuan, where it is a very rare tree in the mountains at 6000 to 8000 feet, occurring on wooded cliffs. The largest tree seen by Henry was about 20 feet in height, but with a girth of 7 or 8 feet. The bark is almost a bright red in colour. Franchet^[52] considered the Chinese yew to resemble Taxus cuspidata, S. et Z., which in his opinion does not seem to differ from the European yew in any positive character. The Chinese mountaineers reported the timber to be red, strong, and of fine quality, and called the tree Kuan-yin-sha, "the fir of the Goddess of Mercy."

IV. Pacific Coast Yew, var. brevifolia.—Though this tree was introduced by William Lobb in 1854,^[53] it is still very rare, and we know no specimens of any size in England, though it might be so easily mistaken for the common yew, that we have possibly overlooked it. It would no doubt grow well in England, as it is a native of the colder and damper parts of the north-west coast of America, from Queen Charlotte Islands along the coast ranges of British Columbia, western Washington, and Oregon; in California on the Sierra Nevada at 5000 to 8000 feet, and as far south as Monterey; and extends eastward to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, where it becomes shrubby in habit, I have seen it in Washington on the slopes of Mount Tacoma, where it grew isolated in the dense forest, and attained no great size, though it occasionally reaches a height of 70 to 80 feet. In Vancouver's Island it is not uncommon in the rich, low meadows of the east coast, but the largest I saw were not over 30 to 40 feet high. The wood seemed indistinguishable from that of the European species, and was, like it, rotten at heart in old trees and full of holes. Sargent says that the Indians use it for bows, paddles, spear handles, and fish-hooks, but except for fencing posts it does not seem to be used by settlers.

V. Canadian Yew, var. canadensis.—This is only a creeping shrub with a stem occasionally a foot or two in height, and though it is said by Loudon to have been introduced in 1800, it has never obtained a place in English gardens. I have seen it common in Canada in thick forest, where it produced red berries very like those of our yew. Sargent gives its distribution as from Newfoundland to the northern shores of Lakes Superior and Winnipeg, southwards through the Northern States to New Jersey and Minnesota.

VI. Florida Yew, var. floridana.—This is one of the rarest of North American trees, confined to a few localities in Western Florida, and, except by its habit, not easily distinguished from T. canadensis. It is usually shrubby, rarely attaining 25 feet high. It has never been introduced to cultivation in England, and is probably not hardy.

VII. Mexican Yew, var. globosa.—A tree about 20 feet in height, discovered in 1837 by Ehrenberg in Southern Mexico. There are also specimens at Kew of yews collected in Mexico by Hartweg, F. Miiller, and W. Saunders, which vary considerably in foliage. This variety is scarcely known, as recent collectors have failed to rediscover the tree. It is very like the common yew. (H.J.E.)

 

Varieties of the Common Yew in Cultivation

These have in some cases originated as individual sports in the wild state; in other cases they are due to the art of the gardener, who has greatly increased the number of varieties by selection. They differ from the type in various ways:—(1) in habit (fastigiate, prostrate, pendulous, and dwarf forms); (2) in the colour, shape, size, and disposition on the branchlets of the leaves; (3) in the colour of the fruit. André,^[54] in an interesting article, illustrated by figures, has drawn attention to the remarkable differences which occur in the shape of the seed and of the aril in the different cultivated varieties; but it is probable that these are not so constant as he believed.

A. Fastigiate Forms.—In these the branches take an upward direction (vertical or ascending), and the leaves tend to spread out radially from the branchlets.

 

I. Var. fastigiata, Irish Yew, Florencecourt Yew.

Taxus baccata fastigiata, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2066 (1838).

Taxus fastigiata, Lindley, Syn. Brit. Flora, 241 (1829).

Taxus hibernica, Hook, ex Loudon, loc. cit.

Columnar and compact in habit, all the branches and branchlets being directed vertically upwards. Branches stout, branchlets few and short. Leaves, always spreading radially in all directions around the branchlets, dark green and shining, with the apex usually more obtuse than in the common yew. Dr. Masters considers the Irish yew to be a juvenile form,^[55] in which the characters of the seedling (the radial disposition of the leaves and the upright habit) are preserved throughout the life of the plant. As the original tree was a female, and the variety is propagated by cuttings, all Irish yews are of the same sex. When they bear flowers they are generally fertilised by the pollen of common yews growing in their neighbourhood, and the seed resulting, when planted, generally produces plants indistinguishable from the common yew.^[56] Dr. Masters^[55] received from Mr. Tillett of Sprowston, near Norwich, sprays of an Irish yew which bore male flowers. This was apparently an instance of a monoecious tree, a phenomenon which occurs though rarely in the common yew. No true male Irish yew has ever been met with. The aril of the Irish yew differs usually from that of the common form in being more oblong in shape.

The Irish yew was discovered^[57] in the mountains of Fermanagh above Florencecourt by a farmer named Willis about the year 1780. He found two plants, one of which he planted in his own garden, and is now no longer living. The other was planted at Florencecourt, the seat of the Earl of Enniskillen; and from it cuttings were distributed, which are the source of all the Irish yews in cultivation. The original tree is still living, and a figure of it is given in Veitch's Manual, p. 141, as it appeared about thirty years ago. Kent says that in 1900 it had an open straggling appearance.

One of the finest Irish yews known to us is that at Seaforde, near Clough, Co. Down, the seat of Major W.G. Forde. This tree was reported to be 33 feet high in 1888,^[58] and 35½ feet in 1903.^[59] A plate of it is given (Plate 58), reproduced from a photograph kindly sent us by the owner, who reports the present measurements (1905) to be:—Height, 37 feet; girth at the ground, 9 feet; circumference of branches at 20 feet from the ground, 91 feet.

Two large trees exist at Comber, Co. Down, of which Mr. Justice Andrews gives the following particulars in a letter:—

"The Irish upright yew trees at Comber, mentioned in Mackay's Flora Hibernica (1836), p. 260, are the two large yews^[60] in the garden beside 'Araghmore,' the residence of Mrs. John Andrews. My earliest recollection of them goes back 60 or 70 years, and they were then apparently as tall as they are now, but not so much spread out. I cannot accurately estimate their height and girth, but they are the two largest upright yews I have seen."

At Brockhill,^[61] Worcester, there are two large Irish yews, estimated by Mr. Lees to have been at least 100 years old. Very handsome specimens are also growing at Montacute House, Somerset.

The Irish yew is very effective as a garden tree, but requires pruning and wiring every two or three years in order to keep it in good shape. There is at Colesborne a terrace planted on both sides with Irish yews about 50 years ago, which are kept in shape by wire, and when so treated are of very uniform growth and habit.

Taxus fastigiata aurea is a form of the Irish yew, in which the young shoots are golden yellow. In Taxus fastigiata argentea the tips of the branchlets are white.

 

2. Var. Chesthuntensis.

Taxus baccata Chesthuntensis, Gordon, Pinet. Suppl. 98 (1862).

 

This was raised by William Paul of the Cheshunt Nursery from a seed of the Irish yew, which it resembles. The branches, however, are ascending, but not so erect as in the parent form. The leaves have an acute apex, and resemble in colour those of the Irish yew, being dark green and shining on the upper surface; they are broader and shorter than those of the common yew. It is less formal than the Irish yew, and is said to grow twice as fast.

 

3. Var. elegantissima.—This was raised, according to Barron,^[62] by Fox of the Wetley Rock Nurseries, who had an Irish and a golden yew growing together, from which this came as a seedling. It is generally a dense compact shrub, but forms occur which are more open in habit. The leaves are usually radially spreading, but are often two -ranked on some of the branchlets; they are long, and terminate gradually in a long, fine cartilaginous point. Young leaves are golden yellow; adult leaves have white margins.

 

4. Var. erecta.

Taxus baccata erecta, Loudon, loc. cit. 2068 (1838).

Taxus baccata Crowderi, Gordon, Pin. Suppl. 98 (1862).

Taxus baccata stricta, Hort.

 

A dense broad shrub with erect and ascending branches. The leaves are dark green, shining, short, and acute; and are usually radially arranged, but often on the lower branchlets are disposed in two ranks.

The Nidpath Yew^[63] resembles this variety, but is more columnar in habit, with a tendency to spread at the top. The leaves, as seen on a shrub at Kew, are bluish green, and usually are all radially arranged.

A variety named imperialis is described as being a slender, tall form with ascending branches and dark green leaves.

 

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.^[64] 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.^[64] Barron^[65] states that all his Dovaston yews are female trees. Carrière^[66] 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, dense shrub, making no definite leader, with the tips of the branchlets pendulous. Var. gracilis pendula is said to have the branches and branchlets more elongated, and to attain a larger size than var. pendula.

 

9. Var. horizontalis.

Taxus baccata horizontalis. Knight, Syn. Conif. 52 (1850).

This resembles the Dovaston yew in the verticillate arrangement of the spreading branches. The branchlets, however, instead of being pendulous, are turned slightly upwards at the ends of the branches.

 

10. Var. recurvata.

Taxus baccata recurvata, Carrière, Conif. 520 (1855).

A large shrub, with branches somewhat ascending and elongated, and pendulous branchlets, which bear the leaves so arranged as to be all directed upwards, each leaf being recurved. The leaves resemble those of the Dovaston yew.

 

11. Var. procumbens.

Taxus baccata procumbens, Loudon, loc. cit. 2067 (1838).

A low prostrate shrub, keeping close to the ground, with branches long and ramified. This is distinct from Taxus canadensis in characters of leaves and buds.

 

D. Varieties with leaves distichously arranged, in which the leaves are variously coloured.

12. Var. aurea, Golden Yew.

Taxus baccata aurea, Carrière, Conif. 518 (1855).

A golden yew is mentioned in Plot's History of Staffordshire as occurring in that county in 1686. There are many kinds of golden yew, which are of different origin. The form generally known as aurea is a dense shrub or low tree, with narrow falcate leaves which are variegated with yellow. Golden yews of this kind are said to be all male trees. The original was reared by Lee of Hammersmith, and was afterwards planted at Elvaston Castle. It was monœcious,^[67] and from it Barron reared several varieties. The variety known as var. Barroni has the leaves more decidedly yellow than those of the common golden yew; and one form of it is female and bears berries.

A great number of variegated yews of different kinds have been raised at Knap Hill, at the Chester Nurseries, and elsewhere. These have been obtained as seedlings in various ways; some were obtained by planting Irish yew amongst common golden yew; in other cases the seed-plants used were varieties like elegantissima, erecta, adpressa, etc.

 

13. Var. Washingtoni.—A low dense shrub, in which the leaves on the young shoots are golden yellow in colour.

14. Var. glauca.

Taxus baccata glauca, Carrière, Conif. 519 (1855).

A vigorous shrub, with leaves, which are shining and dark green on the upper surface, and glaucous blue beneath.

 

E. Variety with differently coloured fruit.

15. Var. fructu luteo.

Taxus baccata fructu luteo; Loudon, loc. cit. iv. 2068 (1838).

This variety only differs from the common yew in the aril of the fruit being yellow. A tree of this kind was discovered about the year 1817 at Glasnevin, near Dublin, growing on the property of the Bishop of Kildare.

Cuttings, however, were first distributed from a tree noticed in the grounds of Clontarf Castle in 1838. This tree^[68] was about 50 feet high in 1888. At Ardsallagh, Co. Meath, the residence of Mrs. M'Cann, there is a tree 30 feet high and 7 feet in girth, with yellow fruit, occurring in an avenue of old yews. There are several trees of this kind at Powerscourt,^[69] the best one of which was about 40 feet high in 1888. Bushes raised from the seeds of these trees are reported to be bearing yellow berries, from which it would appear that this variety comes true from seed. It is remarkable that all the yellow-berried yews known, except the one mentioned above as collected at Manipur, should occur in the neighbourhood of Dublin.

 

F. Variety with small leaves.

16. Var. adpressa.

Taxus baccata adpressa, Carrière, Rev. Horticole, 1855, p. 93; Taxus adpressa, Gordon, Pinetum, 310.

Taxus tardiva, Lawson, ex Henkel and Hochstetter, Syn. Nadelh. 361.

Taxus sinensis tardiva. Knight, Syn. Conif. 52 (1850).

A large spreading shrub with densely crowded branchlets, bearing remarkably small broad leaves, arranged on the shoots, as in the common yew. The leaves are dark green above, ¼–½ inch long, elliptic linear in outline, with a rounded apex, from which is given off a short mucro. The aril is broad and shallow, not covering the seed, which is 3-angled and often depressed at the summit.

This is by far the most distinct of all the forms, geographical and horticultural, not only in foliage, but also in fruit. It has been considered by many botanists to be a distinct species, conjecturally of Japanese or Chinese origin. It is not known in Japan,^[70] except as a plant introduced from Europe; and there is no reason for doubting the positive information^[71] as to its origin given by Messrs. James Dickson and Sons and by the late Mr. F.T. Dickson of Chester, though there is a slight discrepancy in their two accounts. The latter states that it was found as a seedling by his father amidst some yew seedlings about 1838, while the former give the date as 1828, and the locality as a bed of thorn seedlings in the Bache Nurseries, Chester.

Only female plants of this variety are known, and it is reproduced by grafting. Its flowers are doubtless fertilised by the pollen of common yew trees near at hand, and as a rule it produces a great crop of berries. Messrs. Dickson and Sons have frequently sown seeds which invariably produced the common yew.

Var. adpressa stricta is a form of this variety in which the branches are erect or ascending. It is not known whether it originated as a seedling or as a sport fixed by grafting. It was raised by Mr. Standish.

Var. adpressa aurea is a form with golden leaves.

Var. adpressa variegata is a form with the young shoots suffused with a silvery yellow colour. This was exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society on August 27, 1889.

There are fine examples of var. adpressa in Kew Gardens.

 

Seedling^[72]

The two cotyledons, together with the seed-case which envelops them as a cap, are carried above ground by the lengthening caulicle; and speedily casting off the remains of the seed-case, act as if they were true leaves. They differ from the latter in bearing stomata on the upper and not on the lower surface, and in having their apices rounded and not acute. The young stem, angled by the decurrent bases of the leaves, gives off at first three or four opposite pairs of true leaves, which are succeeded in vigorous plants by a few alternate leaves, crowded at the summit around a terminal bud, which in all cases closes the first season's growth, when the young plant is i to 3 inches high. The caulicle, i to 2 inches in length, ends in a strong tap-root, which descends several inches into the soil, and gives off a few lateral fibres.

The growth of the seedling during the next four or five years is very slow, often scarcely an inch annually. Afterwards the growth becomes more rapid.

 

Sexes, Flowers, Fruit, Buds

The yew is normally diœcious; but exceptions occur, and in our account of the cultivated varieties two or three instances of monœcious trees have been mentioned. The celebrated yew at Buckland,^[73] Kent, is monœcious. As a rule it is only a single twig or branch which bears flowers of a different sex from those on the rest of the tree. A yew^[74] at Hohenheimer, near Stuttgart, is reported, however, to bear male and female flowers irregularly over the whole tree, each kind, however, on separate twigs. There is a specimen at Kew of a branch, sent in 1885 by the Rev. T.J.C. Valpy of Elsing, Norfolk, which bears both male flowers and fruit.

Gilbert White thought that male trees are more robust in growth than female trees; but we are unaware of any accurate observations on this subject. Kirchner,^[75] however, states that there is a slight distinction in the habit of the two sexes, male trees being taller with longer internodes and shorter leaves.

In early spring drops of mucilage may be observed glistening on the ovules of female trees in flower. The mucilage is secreted by the micropyle, and seems to entangle the grains of pollen which have been wafted on the ovules by the wind. The clouds of pollen which fly forth from the male flowers are well known. The pollen is liberated from the stamens by a very elaborate mechanism, which serves to protect the pollen grains in rainy weather. A good account of this is given by Kerner.^[76]

A large quantity of fruit of the yew falls to the ground in autumn; but the seeds in this case do not as a rule germinate. Natural reproduction seems to be effected by birds like the thrush and blackbird, which, attracted by the fleshy aril, devour the whole fruit. The seeds, protected by their hard testa, escape digestion and are voided at a distance. They rarely germinate in the first year after ripening; seedlings come up as a rule in the year following, a few even appearing in the third year.

The buds of the different geographical forms appear to differ more than the leaves themselves. The terminal bud is invested closely by the uppermost and youngest leaves and continues the growth of the shoot. The bud scales on unfolding remain at the base of the growing shoot, and on older branchlets persist as dry brownish scales, forming an involucre at the bases of the branchlets. Lateral buds are developed on the twigs at irregular intervals. Many of these remain dormant, retaining the power to take on growth at any moment. This explains the readiness with which the yew submits to pruning, and the facility with which it produces coppice shoots when the stem is cut. Spray or epicormic branches are frequently produced on the upper side of the branches or on the stem; and these also originate in dormant buds.

True root-suckers are never formed; but layering occurs, though very rarely, in branches which have come in contact with the ground. (A.H.)

 

Age, Hardiness

With regard to the supposed great age of yew trees, which has been much exaggerated by authors—especially by the great Swiss botanist, De Candolle—we must refer our readers to Lowe, who has discussed the subject very thoroughly in chapter iii. of his work. He proves that the average rate of growth is about I foot of diameter in 60-70 years in both young and old trees. There is, however, abundant evidence to show that though old trees grow at intervals much more rapidly than young ones, they do not grow uniformly, but have periods of comparative rest, and that the increase of girth is fastest when old trees have lost their heads and the stem is covered with young shoots.

No tree has such a remarkable faculty of covering up wounds or injuries by the growth of fresh wood from the outside; and even after the main stem is completely dead, fresh and entirely new stems may grow up around it and form a new tree around the dead one. For this reason most of the yews of very large size are mere shells, and even when no hollow can be seen from the outside, decay—which is often indicated by moisture running from holes in the trunk—has set in.

Three very curious sections showing the way in which these trunks grow are given by Lowe, pp. 78 and 79.

The yew, though occurring wild far north, as in Norway, is not perfectly hardy, and many instances are on record in which it has been injured or killed during severe winters. It was affected in Cambridgeshire^[77] and severely injured at Glasgow by the severe frost of 1837–1838. In the winter of 1859–1860 the young shoots of many trees were killed at Burton-on-Trent.^[78]

Many cultivated yews^[79] were killed by the frost of 1879–1880 in Switzerland, Rhineland, Hessia, Thuringia, etc. though in the same localities other native conifers were not injured by the severe cold. Duhamel^[80] states that in France the yew suffered much damage from the great frosts of 1709; and Malesherbes found several killed by the frost of 1789.

 

Poisonous Properties of the Yew

The poisonous properties of the yew have been well known from the earliest times, and the subject has been so carefully investigated in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 1892, p. 698, by Messrs. E.P. Squarey, Charles Whitehead, W. Carruthers, F.R.S., and Dr. Munro, and summarised by Low in chapter x. of his work, that we need not do more than give a brief résumé of the present state of our knowledge. Through the kindness of Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, we have been able to peruse a file of the Board of Agriculture entitled "Yew Poisoning," in which the subject has been further discussed by that gentleman with whose opinions we are in complete accordance.

The conclusions drawn by Dr. Munro, after careful study from a medical point of view, are as follows:—

"Both male and female yew leaves contain an alkaloid.

"This alkaloid in both cases appears to agree with the taxine of Hilger and Brande. Taxine is probably the poison of the yew, but it is doubtful whether it has ever been obtained in a pure state, and its physiological effects have not been sufficiently studied. Other alkaloids are probably present in yew.

"Taxine is present in fresh yew leaves as well as in those withered or air-dried. It is also present in the seeds, but not in the fleshy part of the fruit.

"The yew poison may be one of moderate virulence only, and may occur in greater percentage in male than in female trees, or the percentage may vary from tree to tree without distinction of sex, and this may explain the capricious occurrence of poisoning. Also the half-dried leaves would be, cceteris paribus, more potent than the fresh.

"Further and extended chemical researches, in conjunction with physiological experiments, are necessary to clear up the matter.

"The principle having a specific uterine action is possibly not the same as that which causes death."

This poison, if taken in sufficient quantity, is deadly to man, horses, asses, sheep, cattle, pigs, pheasants, and possibly other animals, but under ordinary circumstances small quantities of the leaves may be and are habitually eaten by live-stock without apparent injury, whilst it seems proved that the wood of the yew may be used for water vessels and for baths, as in Japan, without any deleterious effects.

Sargent, Silva of North America, vol. x., 63, says "no cases of poisoning by Taxus in North America appear to be recorded"; and Brandis, Forest Flora of British India, p. 541, says that "in India domestic animals are said to browse upon T. baccata without experiencing any bad effects."

With regard to the danger of allowing this tree to grow in hedges and fields where stock are pastured, there seems to be abundant evidence, which is well summarised by Mr. E.P. Squarey, and which my own experience entirely confirms, that though animals which have been bred and fed in places where they have access to yew are more or less immune, probably because they never eat it in sufficient quantity to do harm, yet that animals freshly turned into such places when hungry, or in winter and spring when there is little grass, are liable to die from eating it, and that fatal effects most commonly ensue when loppings or partially withered branches and leaves are eaten.

It has been held in more than one case that landowners, and others responsible for keeping up fences, who allow yew trees to remain insufficiently fenced, are liable to an action for damages if another person's cattle from adjoining land eat the branches and die.

With regard to the danger of yew trees in game coverts we have little exact knowledge, but in certain cases there seems to be evidence of its being poisonous to pheasants, and the following passage, which was communicated by Sir William ffolkes, Bart., of Hillington Hall, Norfolk, to the editor of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1892, p. 698, is worth quoting in full.

"Some years ago, when shooting through the coverts here the second time, we found about fifteen carcasses of pheasants under some yew trees. These could not have been overlooked the first time in picking up, as there was no stand anywhere near this place where so many pheasants could have been shot. My keeper informs me that it is after the pheasants have been disturbed by shooting that they take to perching in the yew trees. This may or may not be so, but at any rate it appears that, when they take to perching in these trees, they are apt to eat a few of the leaves. We now always drive them off the yew trees when they go to perch at night. I enclose some of the yew which poisoned the pheasants, and would like to add that never before this year have we picked up a dead pheasant anywhere near these yew trees till the coverts had been shot."

We have no record of any case of deer being poisoned by yew, though no doubt in a heavy snow they might be tempted to eat it, and Mr. Squarey states that in the "Great and Little Yews" of which I write later, hares and rabbits, which are very numerous, have never been found dead from poisoning.

I mnay add that I have frequently seen yews of a few inches in girth barked and killed by rabbits where they are very numerous and hungry, but it is one of the last trees to be attacked.

 

Cultivation

The yew is best raised from seed, except in the case of varieties which are propagated by cuttings, which are taken off in April or August and put into sandy soil in a shady border, or, better, under a handlight, as they will then root more quickly.

Seed, if sown when ripe, will sometimes come up in the following spring, but usually lies over the first year, and is therefore treated like haws. The seedlings grow very slowly at first, and require several years of nursery cultivation before they are large enough to plant out.

They are easy to transplant in early autumn or in spring, and may be safely moved at almost any time of the year even when of large size, if care is taken to prepare the roots and keep them watered until new ones are formed.

The yew in Buckland Churchyard, about a mile from Dover, may be mentioned as an instance of the great age at which this tree may be transplanted with safety, if proper care and appliances are used. This tree was a very old and large one, divided into two stems, one of which, almost horizontal, was 10 feet 10 inches, and the entire trunk no less than 22 feet in girth. It was removed by the late Mr. W. Barron on March 1, 1880, to a position 60 yards off, where Mr. John Barron of Elvaston Nurseries tells me it is now in a vigorous state of health. An account of this tree is given by Lowe; and the manner in which it was transplanted, with pictures of its appearance before and after removal, is described fully in Gard. Chron. 1880, p. 556–7.

By sowing seeds there is some chance of obtaining variegated forms, which are among the most ornamental shrubs we have.

The Hon. Vicary Gibbs has found that at Aldenham the use of nitrate of soda increases in a marked degree the growth of young yew trees. Some yews planted by him in 1897 and treated with liberal quantities of this manure had attained in 1905 an average height of 12 feet, with a girth of stem of 16 inches at a foot above the base.

 

Soil and Situation

Though the yew grows naturally most commonly on limestone formations in England, it will grow on almost any soil except perhaps pure peat and wet clay, and attains its largest dimensions on deep sandy loam. It grows better under dense shade than any tree we have, and may therefore be used for underplanting beech -woods where bare ground is objected to, and where the soil is too poor and dry or too limy for silver fir. In such situations, however, it grows very slowly and produces little or no fruit.

 

Remarkable Trees

No tree, except perhaps the oak, has a larger literature in English than the yew; and though a monograph on the Yew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland by the late John Lowe, M.D., was published by Macmillan so lately as 1897, I am able to add many records of trees not known to him, and shall not allude to most of the trees which he has described and figured.

It is strange that neither Loudon, Lowe, nor any other writer has, so far as I know, described the yews in the close walks at Midhurst, which, on account of their extraordinary height, form what I believe to be the most remarkable yew-grove in Great Britain or elsewhere.

The age and history of these wonderful trees is lost in obscurity, but it is said in Wm. Roundell's very interesting book on Cowdray^[81] that Queen Elizabeth was entertained at a banquet in these walks, so they must have been of considerable age and size 300 years ago.

The close walks are situated close to the town on the other side of the river, and consist of four avenues of yew trees forming a square of about 150 yards, together with a grove of yews at the upper end which average, as nearly as I could measure them, about 75 feet in height, but some probably exceed 80. These trees are for the most part sound and healthy, though little care has been taken of them, and some have fallen. They are remarkable not only for their great height, which exceeds that of any other yews on record in Europe, but on account of their freedom from large branches, many having clean boles of 20 - 30 feet with a girth of 8–9 feet. They stand so thick together that on an area of about half an acre or less—I made 213 paces in going round it—I counted about 100 trees and saw the stumps of 10 or 12 more, which would probably average over 30 cubic feet to each tree without reckoning the branches.

The ground below is absolutely bare of vegetation, and though I found some small seedlings among the grass and briars on the outside of this area, I do not think the yew grows from seed under its own shade.

The photographs (Plates 54, 55) will give a fair idea of the appearance of this wonderful grove, and of the walks which lead to it. Some of the trees have a remarkable spiral twist in them like fluted columns, which I have not seen so well developed elsewhere.

The soil on which they stand seems to be of a light sandy nature, but deep enough to grow large fine timber of other species, and is, I believe, on the Lower Greensand formation.

Another and perhaps the largest pure yew-wood in England is on the downs three miles west of Downton, Wilts, on the property of the Earl of Radnor. It is known as "The Great Yews," and contains about 80 acres. The trees are not remarkable for their size, and appear to have been partly planted, as the largest are at regular intervals and of about the same age. Probably at a time when yew - wood was wanted for bow - making an existing wood was filled up with planted trees, and no doubt these yews could tell some striking tales. Mr. E. P. Squarey, who took me to see them, and who has seen little change in them during the last 60 years, pointed out one under which some tramps had been caught in the act of roasting a sheep they had stolen, and related various tragedies which had occurred in this wild district in bygone times.

"The Little Yews" is the name of another wood about half a mile from the "Great Yews," which, though not of such large extent, contains much finer trees, many being from 8 feet to 10 feet in girth and 50 feet high. As in other yew woods (at any rate where rabbits exist) I found few or no young trees coming up, and the mixture of beech, ash, oak, thorn, whitebeam, and holly trees which are found in the more open spaces all appear to be self-sown. Several of the largest trees have been recently blown down.

After the Midhurst and the Great and Little Yews, I think the Cherkley Court Yew Wood is the best in England; and, thanks to the kindness of A. Dixon, Esq., the owner, I am able to give some particulars of this interesting place, which Lowe thought to be the finest collection of yews in existence.

The wood covers an area of 50 to 60 acres in a shallow valley forming part of the old Ashurst estate, about three miles from Leatherhead in Surrey, on the east side of the old pilgrims' road to Canterbury. It was formerly a rabbit warren, but is now carefully preserved by Mr. Dixon. It is said that 500 yew trees were once sold out of this wood by Mr. Boxall for 10 guineas each, and these two facts will probably account for the fact that there are now scarcely any young trees coming up, and but few trees with straight, tall trunks. Their average height does not exceed about 40 feet, and the majority of them are not well-grown trees, but there are some of great girth, of which the best is called the Queen Yew, and measures 14 feet 6 inches at i foot from the ground; then swelling out in a peculiar way and measuring 20 feet 4 inches at about 4 feet. At this height it begins to branch, and though the main stem goes up some way, the whole tree is certainly under 50 feet in height.

One of the most curious trees in this grove, called the Cauliflower Yew, was figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle, and copied in Veitch's Coniferæ, ed. ii. p. 128. This tree has now lost much of its beauty, owing to a heavy snowstorm which occurred in 1884 and which did serious damage to the Cherkley Yew Wood.

Another place of great interest to naturalists, where the yew is in great abundance, is Castle Eden Dene, in Durham, the property of Rowland Burdon, Esq. This locality is renowned among botanists as the last in England where the ladies' slipper orchid (Cypripedium Calceolus) still exists. It is a deep valley about 3 to 4 miles long, running down to the sea, and, in some places, has steep cliffs of a peculiar magnesian limestone formation, which decomposes into a red loamy soil, on which yews grow very freely, though they do not attain anything like the size that they do in the south of England. The largest which I measured was only 8 feet in girth. What makes them so picturesque is the way in which their roots spread over the bare rocks, and the mixture of curiously gnarled wych elms which accompany them. All the foot-bridges are here made of yew wood, but it is not cut except for home use, and is not increasing by seed—again, I think, on account of the rabbits.

There is a remarkably fine yew walk at Hatherop Castle, Gloucestershire, the seat of G. Bazley, Esq., which is supposed to be about 300 years old, in which the trees average about 60 feet in height with a girth of 9 to 12 feet.

The yew in Harlington Churchyard, near Hounslow, Middlesex, was considered by Kirchner (loc. cit. 60) to be the tallest yew tree in Europe, viz., 17.4 metres (57 feet). Lowe, page 85, gives the height in 1895 as 80 feet, on the authority of the Rev. E.J. Haddon. Henry saw this yew in October 1895, and measured the height as 50 feet only, and this is correct, within a margin of error of less than 2 feet. This tree is 17 feet 3 inches in girth at the base, where the bole is narrowest; above this it swells and is very gnarled, and at 10 feet up it divides into two great limbs.

A celebrated yew stands in the churchyard at Crowhurst, in Surrey, and has been described by Lowe (p. 201) and figured by Clayton.^[82]

Crowhurst, in Sussex, has another great old tree of which much has been written, and which Low figures (p. 38).

One of the finest yews in England is the Darley yew, growing in the churchyard at Darley Dale, Derbyshire. From a work on Derbyshire Churches, by the Rev. J.C. Cox, M.A., which has been sent me by Messrs. Smith, the well-known nurserymen of Darley Dale, I abridge the following particulars of it:—The churchyard is celebrated for what is claimed to be the finest existing yew tree in England, or even in the United Kingdom. Rhodes, writing of it in 1817, says that the trunk for about 4 yards from the ground measures upwards of 34 feet in girth; but Lowe gives (p. 207) measurements taken by four different persons between 1836 and 1888, of which the largest is 34 feet 6 inches by Mr. Smith in 1879, and the most recent and exact by Mr. Paget Bowman in 1888, which gives 32 feet 3 inches at 4 feet from the ground. This gentleman cut from it with a trephine nine cylinders of wood on one horizontal line which show 33 to 66 rings per inch of radius, showing an average growth of an inch in 46 years. There is a cavity in the tree about half-way up one of the trunks which will hold seven or eight men standing upright. At the ground the girth is 27 feet, and at this point no increase has taken place for 52 years. The height is not given, but a photograph by Mr. Statham shows it as about 50 feet.

I have chosen the tree at Tisbury for illustration as a specimen of the churchyard yew, for though figured by Lowe, his plate gives a poor idea of its symmetry, and it is one of the largest healthy yews in England. Though difficult to measure on account of the young spray which its trunk throws out, I made it in 1903 to be about 45 feet high by 35 in girth. The trunk is hollow, and has inside it a goodsized younger stem, probably formed by a root descending inside the hollow trunk from one of the limbs. It is a female tree, and of its age it is impossible to form a correct estimate. (Plate 35.)

At Kyre Park, Worcestershire, the residence of Mrs. Baldwyn Childe, is a very fine yew tree growing near the wonderful grove of oaks which I have described elsewhere; it measures 55 feet high by 20 in girth. Under it the Court Leet of the Manor was formerly held.

The most widespreading yew I have seen is a tree at Whittinghame, the seat of Mr. Arthur Balfour, which I measured in February 1905. It grows near the old tower, formerly the property of Sir Archibald Douglas, one of the conspirators of Darnley's murder, and, according to a local tradition, this was plotted under its shade. The tree is not remarkable for height or girth, the bole being only about 12 feet high and 10½ feet in girth, but spreads out into an immense drooping head, the branches descending to the ground and forming a complete circular cage or bower about 10 yards in diameter, inside which, Mr. Garrett, the gardener, told me that 300 school children had stood at once. The branches lie on the ground without rooting, so far as I could see, and spread so widely that I made the total circumference about no paces. Mr. Garrett, with a tape, made it 125 yards. The appearance of the tree from outside is fairly well shown in Plate 36.

Another tree of this character, but not so large, grows at Crom Castle, on upper Lough Erne, and is described in the Ulster Journal of Archæology by Lord Erne.^[83] It is said to resemble an enormous green mushroom in contour, and has evidently been a trained tree, its horizontal branches being supported on timber supports upheld by about 60 stout props. Its total height is given as 25 feet, with a bole of 6 feet and a girth of 12 feet, the branches being 250 feet in circumference.

Yew trees in a wild state do not, as a rule, grow so large as those which are planted, probably because they are usually in poor rocky soil and crowded by other trees; but Lord Moreton tells me of a remarkably fine one which was shown him by Mr. Roderick Mackenzie, son of the owner of Fawley Court, in a wood on the Greenlands property on the Chiltern Hills. He described the tree as of the most symmetrical growth, and he guessed it to be nearer 70 feet than 60 feet high, with a girth of about 12 feet.

 

Yew Hedges and Topiary Work

The yew, owing to the readiness with which it submits to pruning, forms an admirable hedge, and an excellent account of the conditions necessary to success in the making and keeping up of yew hedges is given by Mr. J. Clark in recent issues of the Garden^[84] to which we refer our readers.

One of the oldest and finest yew hedges in Great Britain is that at Wrest Park,^[85] which is said to be 350 years old. There is a very high one of semicircular form enclosing the approach to the front door of Earl Bathurst's house at Cirencester.

Others' occur at Pewsey in Wiltshire, Melbourne in Derbyshire, Holme Lacy near Hereford, Hadham in Hertford, Albury Park near Guildford, etc.

An interesting account of the use of yew in topiary work is given by Kent,^[86] who gives two illustrations of the remarkable effects produced by this art at Elvaston Castle. Leven's Hall,^[87] Westmoreland, is also noted for the extraordinary forms into which the yew has been forced to grow. In a recent work^[88] by Elgood and Jekyll pictures are given of several remarkable effects produced by the yew, notably the Yew Alley at Rockingham, the Yew Walk at Crathes, and the Yew Arbour at Lyde.

There are some remarkable clipped yews in the garden at Gwydyr Castle, in the valley of the Conway, a beautiful old place now belonging to Lord Carrington, which have been the subject of careful attention from Mr. Evans, the gardener, for forty years. The largest is in the form of an immense round -topped mushroom, 36 yards round and about 36 feet high, with a perfectly smooth, close, regular surface. In the west garden at the same place there is a double row of yews, eleven on each side, of the same form, but very much smaller.

 

Timber

Since foreign timber has almost entirely superseded home-grown wood, the remarkable qualities of this most durable and beautiful timber have been almost forgotten, though, if we may believe what Evelyn, Loudon, Walker, and other old authors tell us, it was formerly highly valued, not only for bow-making, but for all purposes where strength and durability, when exposed to wet, were required.

At the present time, though I have made many inquiries, I cannot find a cabinetmaker in London who knows or uses the wood; it is rarely to be found in timber yards, and I was told by one of the principal timber merchants in York that I was, in his forty years' experience, the first person who had ever asked for it. It has little or no selling value, and may be bought occasionally for about half the price of oak.

In various old houses, however, examples may be found of its use for furniture, panelling, and inlaying, which show what the wood is worth, when well selected and thoroughly seasoned, to people who do not mind a little trouble.

Evelyn says that for posts to be set in the ground and for everlasting axle-trees there is none to be compared to it, and that cabinetmakers and inlayers most gladly employ it.

Loudon quotes Varennes de Feuilles, who states that the wood, before it has been seasoned and when cut into veneers and immersed some months in pond water, will take a purple-violet colour.

Dr. Walker^[89] speaks of the yew as a tree which grows well in the shade of rocks and precipices, especially near the sea-shore. "No timber is planted in Scotland that gives so high a price as that of yew and laburnum." He mentions a yew that grew on a sea-cliff, in the small stormy island of Bernera near the Sound of Mull, which, when cut into logs, loaded a large six-oared boat, and afforded timber to form a fine staircase in the house of Lochnell.

Sir Charles Strickland tells me that yew wood which is occasionally dug up in the bogs and fens of East Yorkshire is of a pinkish grey colour, and the most beautiful English wood he knows, but the samples of it which Henry has procured in Ireland are much darker in colour.

Miss Edwards states that in the Pyrenees water vessels are made of yew wood, which have the property of keeping the water cool in hot weather, and that there is a flourishing manufacture of such vessels bound with brass hoops at Osse.

Marshall is quoted by Loudon to the effect that about 1796 yew trees at Boxhill were cut down and sold to cabinetmakers at high prices for inlaying, one tree being valued at £100, and half of it actually sold for £50. Boutcher says that, from his own experience, bedsteads made of yew wood will not be approached by bugs. Mathieu^[90] states that in France the wood is sought for by turners, sculptors, and makers of instruments and toys.

The thin straight shoots of the yew which are cut by gipsies in the south of England make most excellent whip sticks, lighter than, and quite as tough as holly. I believe that yew would also make first-rate handles for polo sticks and golf clubs, though makers of these articles do not as yet seem to have used it.

Boulger^[91] says that in the library of the India Office there is a Persian illuminated manuscript on thin sheets of yew, and it also makes very ornamental boards for bookbinding.

As an example of what can be done with yew wood, I may refer to Macquoid's History of English Furniture, where a coloured illustration (plate iv.) is given of an extremely handsome armchair in Hornby Castle, the property of the Duke of Leeds. Macquoid says:—"The date is about 1550. It is made of yew, which adds to its rarity, for up to this time it was practically penal to employ yew wood for any other purpose than the manufacture of the national weapon; in this instance the wood has become close, as hard as steel, and of a beautiful dark amber colour."

At Hatfield House, the historic mansion of the Marquess of Salisbury, the small drawing-room is panelled entirely with yew wood, the doors being also made of fine burry pieces, but the workmanship in this case is not perfect, and the colour of the wood has been spoilt by varnish.

At Dallam Tower, Westmoreland, the seat of Sir Maurice Bromley-Wilson, the staircase is made of yew wood grown on the property.

Trees are occasionally found in which the whole body of the log consists of small burry growths something like that of maple, and when this is mixed with contorted grain of various shades of pink the effect is very good. But such trees are even now so valuable that they are cut into veneer, and I have a magnificent specimen of such in a sheet 8 feet long by 18 to 20 inches wide which has been mounted for me as a table by Messrs. Marsh, Cribb, and Co. of Leeds.

The reason why it is neglected for all these purposes is apparently as follows:—The tree is usually grown in the form of a bush, and does not often become tall and straight enough to form clean timber. It is not usually planted close enough to become drawn up into clean poles, and is rarely felled except when in the way, or when it has become decayed and unsightly.

No tree is so deceptive in appearance as an old yew tree. Not only is it usually full of holes and shakes, but the heartwood is generally more or less unsound when over a foot in diameter. Some defects are usually present in an old yew tree, and even when clean and sound, the heartwood is not so good in colour as the younger wood or the slabs; and as the bark grows over and covers all these defects it is generally impossible to say how much, if any, of the timber of a large yew will be useful until it is sawn through the middle.

It seems to be soundest and best in colour when of moderate age and not over 12 to 18 inches in diameter, though the slabs from old trees of which the heartwood is pale, shaky, or faulty often show the finest and most twisted grain.

(H.J.E.)

 

1. Himalayan Journals, ii. 25 (1854), and Student's Flora of Brit. Islands, 369 (1878).
2. It has been described as a distinct species, Taxus Wallichiana, Zuccarini, in Abhand. K. Bayr. Akad. Wissensch. iii. 803, t. 5 (1843). Pilger, who ranks the different geographical forms as sub-species, keeps it separate from the European yew as sub-species Wallichiana.
3. Flora Jap. Fam. Nat. ii. 108 (1846); Shirasawa, Icon. Ess. Forest. Japan, i. 33, t. 15 (1899).
4. Taxus baccata, L., Masters, Index Flora Sinensis, ii. 546 (1902).
5. Nuttall, Sylv. iii. 86, t. 108 (1849); Sargent, Silva N. America, x. 65, t. 514 (1896).
6. Marshall, Arb. Amer. 151 (1785); Sargent, Silva N. America, x. 63 (1896). The plant cultivated at Kew as Taxus canadensis, var. aurea, a strong-growing, erect shrub, is apparently a variety of the common yew.
7. Chapman, Flora South United States, 436 (1860); Sargent, Silva N. America, x. 67, t. 515 (1896).
8. Schlechtendal, Linnæa, xii. 496 (1838); Sargent, Silva N. America, x. 63 (1896).
9. British Association Report, 1901, p. 839.
10. Origin British Flora, 151 (1899).
11. Bot. Centralblatt, 1896, lxvi. 105; and 1900, Beihefte, ix. 223.
12. Irish Naturalist, xiv. 1905, p. 34, with plate showing yew trunk and transverse section.
13. Mackay, Flora Hibernica, 260 (1836).
14. Hart, Flora County Donegal, 237 (1898).
15. Specimens from these localities have been identified by Pilger as the Himalayan yew.
16. Flora Vectensis, p. 472.
17. Lowe, loc. cit. p. 28.
18. Strangways in Loudon's Gard. Mag. 1839, p. 119.
19. Trans. Worcester Nat. Hist. Club, 1847–1896, p. 16.
20. Stud. Flora Brit. Islands, 369 (1878).
21. Flora of Perthshire, 283 (1898).
22. Flora Scotica, ii. 626 (1777).
23. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. vii. 290 (1901).
24. Mackay, Flora Hibernica, 260 (1836).
25. Cybele Hibernica, 331 (1898).
26. Schubeler, Viridarium Norvegicum, p. 448.
27. Hansen, in Jour. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 1892, p. 314.
28. Prodrome de la Flore Belge, iii. 6 (1899).
29. Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 509, 510 (1897).
30. Flora Pyrenæa, I. 46 (1897).
31. Les vieux arbres de la Normandie, iii. 359 (1895).
32. Forstliche Flora, 275 (1897).
33. Hercynische Florenbezirk, 114 (1902).
34. Flore Forestal Española, i. 114 (1883).
35. Northern Spain, 387 (1897).
36. Pflanzenverbreitung auf der Ibirischen Halbinzel, 251 (1896).
37. Le Plante Legnose Italiane, 31 (1890).
38. Halácsy, Consp. Fl. Græcæ, iii. 459 (1904).
39. Trelease, Missouri Bot. Garden Ann. Report, viii. 1897, p. 169.
40. Battandier et Trabut, Flore de l'Algérie, 398 (1904).
41. Radde, Pflanzenverbreitung in den Kaukasusländern, 183 (1899).
42. G. Henslow in Garden, 1904, ii. 73.
43. Gamble, Indian Timbers, 413.
44. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, i. 168, 191, ii. 25 (1854).
45. Garden and Forest, 1897, p. 400. Large trees also occur at Washington, loc. cit. 1896, p. 261.
46. Ibid. p. 405.
47. Forest Flora of Japan, p. 76.
48. Miyabe, "Flora of Kurile Isles," in Mem. Boston Soc. Nal. Hist. iv. 261 (1890).
49. Primitiæ Floræ Amurensis, 259 (1859).
50. Gard. Chron. 1860, p. 170. Article by Fortune on Chinese Plants introduced during his travels in China in 1854–1856.
51. Garden and Forest, 1897, p. 402.
52. Jour. de Bot. 1899, p. 264.
53. Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, ed. I, 305 (1881).
54. Revue Horticole, 1886, p. 105, translated in Garden, 1889, xxxv. 36.
55. Gard. Chron. 1891, x. 68.
56. Sir C. Strickland writes in Gard. Chron. 1877, vii. 151: "All the plants I have raised from Irish yew berries are exactly like the common yew." But Elwes saw at Ortun Hall three seedlings from the Irish yew of which one was fastigiate in habit.
57. Gard. Chron. 1873, p. 1336.
58. Ibid. 1888, iv. 484.
59. Ibid. 1903, xxxiii. 60.
60. Loudon figures one of these on p. 2067.
61. Trans. Worcester Nat. Hist. Club, 1847–1896, p. 211.
62. Gard. Chron. 1868, p. 921. Veitch's Manual, 1st ed. 302, states that it was introduced by Messrs. Fisher, Son, and Sibray of the Handsworth Nurseries, near Sheffield.
63. Nicholson, Dict. of Gardening, iv. 12.
64. Gard. Chron. 1900, xxvii. p. I46, where a figure and full details of the Dovaston yew are given.
65. Ibid. 1868, p. 992. He gives the dimensions of the Westfelton tree in 1876 as 34 feet high by 7½ feet in girth. Garden, ix. 341.
66. Traité gén. des Conifères, ii. 763 (1867).
67. According to Barron the tree was a male; but he discovered on it a single branch bearing female flowers. See Gard. Chron. 1868, p. 921; also 18S2, ii. 238.
68. Gard. Chron. 1888, iv. 576.
69. Ibid. 707.
70. Matsumura, Shokubutsu Mei-I. 290 (1895).
71. Gard. Chron. 1886, xxix. 221, 268.
72. Figured in Lubbock, Seedlings, ii. 553, fig. 677 (1892).
73. Gard. Chron. 1880, xiii. 556. There are specimens of this yew in the Kew herbarium.
74. Kirchner, loc. cit. 74.
75. Kirchner, loc. cit. 74.
76. Nat. Hist. Plants, Eng. translation, ii. 145, 146 (1898).
77. Lindley, Trans. Hort. Soc. 1842, ii. 225.
78. Gard. Chron. 1860, p. 578.
79. Kirchner, loc. cit. 62.
80. Traité de Arbres, i. 302 (1755).
81. Cf. Guide to Midhurst, p. 41 (Midhurst: G. Roynon (1903)).
82. Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, 1903, p. 408.
83. Cf. Loudon, loc. cit. 2081.
84. Garden, 1905, lxvii. 54 and 136.
85. Gard. Chron. 1900, xxvii. 375.
86. Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 137 (1900).
87. Gard. Chron. 1874, p. 264.
88. Some English Gardens, pp. 34, 42, 107 (1904).
89. Economical History of the Hebrides, vol. ii. pp. 205, 240(1812).
90. Flore Forestière, 511 (1897).
91. Wood, 346 (1902).