SO On the Longevity of the Yew. 



sheltered situation. I may pause to add that this graceful 

 tree has its lower branches declining towards the ground in 

 all directions, and all its foliage of a pensile character ; but, 

 besides its beauty, it has another interesting peculiarity : 

 though a male and profuse in pollen, it has one entire branch 

 female, that produces and ripens berries plentifully, from which 

 my friend has raised several plants for his friends, all partaking 

 markedly of their parents' pensi'.ity. 



The above are all the data I have hitherto obtained of 

 yews whose ages are known ; and they all concur in showing a 

 larger increase than De Candolle's standard, which is M a 

 little more than a line annually for the first 150 years." It 

 must, however, be borne in mind, that his average extends 30 

 or 40 years beyond mine ; the oldest of the trees I have named 

 being only 110, or at most 120, years. 



In the volume on botany in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, 

 Professor Henslow states the mean annual growth of two fine 

 healthy yews in the churchyard at Basildon, in Berkshire, 

 (which, by a singular coincidence, were planted out in the same 

 year as the eighteen at Gresford,) to be equal to four lines. 

 He also found that the layers varied considerably in a yew at 

 Cholsey, in Berkshire, whose trunk was between 14 ft. and 

 15 ft. in circumference, some of those recently deposited 

 being 2\ lines, while others, a century older, were only half 

 a line in thickness. It will be seen that this inequality 

 accords with my own observations. From these data he ar- 

 rived at the conclusion that De Candolle's calculations should 

 be reduced by one third ; but he does not appear to have 

 examined any very large yews, or to have met with sections 

 containing 40, 50, or even 60 rings within the inch; and it fol- 

 lows that, if a deduction is made on account of the wider 

 rings, we should, on the other hand, add something to De 

 Candolle's average for the closer and thinner ones. 



I shall now give the result of my own examination of two 

 yews of extraordinary dimensions, of whose age no other 

 evidence exists beyond that supplied by their internal struc- 

 ture. The first (Jig' 6.) stands in the churchyard of Gresford, 

 among the eighteen young ones already mentioned. It is a male 

 tree, its trunk sound to the very core, its numerous gigantic 

 boughs spreading widely, full of foliage, and partially con- 

 cealing the splintered bases of others which have yielded to 

 the storms of past centuries. Its circumference at the base 

 is 22 ft. ; at 2 ft. high, it is 23 ft. ; at 4 ft. 5 in., 26 ft. 6 in. ; 

 and at 5 ft. 3 in., being just below the main boughs, 29 ft. very 

 nearly, thus gradually thickening upwards. I have selected 

 the greatest and least of these admeasurements, as the best 



