iff the Yew in Churchyards. 89 



description more intelligible. Another yew, a male, in Llan- 

 thewy Vach churchyard, near Caerleon, measures 30 ft. 4« in. in 

 circumference at 3 ft. from the ground; and, like the last, has 

 a stunted and hollow trunk, and a lateral opening, and will hold 

 five or six persons. It has also in the centre a still more 

 remarkable inner trunk covered with bark, quite detached and 

 distinct from the old one below, but united with it above by a 

 great branch running into, or, more probably, proceeding from, 

 it. I will explain how I conceive these inner trees have been 

 produced, after stating the fact which has suggested the idea ; 

 for, without such evidence, it would not have been easy to 

 understand them. On the excursion of the botanical section 

 of the British Association from Bristol to Portishead, Mr. 

 Bright of Ham Green, after regaling our party with a sump- 

 tuous dejeune a la fourchette, courteously took us to the church- 

 yard of Portbury to see two very lofty yews, much longer in 

 the bole than usual. One of the company, Mr. Ball of Dublin, 

 ascended the oldest of these, and announced that a small 

 branch from the base of a bough had shot downwards into the 

 decayed top of the trunk; and which^ on being pulled up 9 proved 

 to be a perfect root, upwards of 3 ft. in length. This singular 

 circumstance, which, I dare say, many of the eminent natu- 

 ralists then present will recollect, will, I think, fully explain 

 the origin of the inner trunks above described. When the 

 top of the trunk became cracked by the action of storms upon 

 the boughs, the rain would find access, and, in time, cause 

 decay ; and the dead leaves and dung of bats, birds, &c, 

 falling in, would combine with the rotten wood to form a soft 

 rich mould, into which a bud shooting out from a neighbour- 

 ing part (if not actually covered by the mould) would na- 

 turally be drawn by the moisture and surrounding shade, and 

 transformed into a root. As the fissure widened and deepened 

 by the slow but sure progress of decay, this root would de- 

 scend and thicken, and ultimately fix itself in the soil below. 

 After a lapse o£ perhaps, several centuries, decay would ap- 

 proach the circumference of the trunk, and produce a rift on 

 one side: through this the rotten mould would fall out, and 

 gradually expose the root it had conducted downwards ; and, 

 the combined influence of light and air acting upon its juices, 

 it would soon deposit annual layers of true wood, and be 

 covered with a true bark. Meanwhile it would have shot up a 

 stem near its point of union, and have formed for itself an inde- 

 pendent head and branches. All this is in strict conformity 

 with the known laws of vegetable physiology; and some similar 

 process has produced the peculiarities I have described in the 

 Mamhilad and Llanthewy Vach yews. We have detected it, 

 Vol. I. — No. 2. n. s, h 



