1885.] THE BEA VTIES OF BRITISH TREES. 217 



or south-west side of the church. The ouly well-marked species of a 

 genus, wliich with a few others, not a dozen in all, including the now 

 well-known maiden-hair tvee{Gud-{/o adiantifolla) of Japan, constitutes 

 a remarkably distinct order among Gymnosperms ; its hard, durable, 

 reddish wood presents characters that enable us readily to recognise 

 it in the peat-beds of prehistoric times. In the bogs of Ireland, 

 Scotland, and Cumberland, in the Camljridgeshire fens and the sub- 

 merfred " moor-Ions " at the mouth of the Thames, its wood is as 

 perfectly preserved as bog-oak, being of a rich brown tint ; and 

 iinder the microscope, it exhibits, as when alive, a unique combina- 

 tion of " bordered pits " and spiral lines in the woody fibres. 

 Whilst, moreover, we may often see trees in situations that suggest 

 their having been planted, no one can have seen the groves of yew 

 in Cranbourne Chase, on the Hampshire Downs, or the basaltic hill 

 of Arely in Staffordshire, or its sporadic occurrence round Coulsdon 

 in Surrey, or Tunbridge Wells without being convinced of its truly 

 indigenous character. It is curious to follow with the eye a line of 

 sombre yews winding along the downs in Surrey or Kent, marking 

 the so-called rilgrim's Way, — a road far more ancient than the days 



when 



" From every schires eiide 

 Of Engelond, to Cantiivbury tliey wende, 

 The holy blisful martir for to seeke ; " 



a road which leads, not only to many a quaint little sequestered 

 N'orman church, with perchance an exceptionally venerable yew 

 shadowing its silent graves, but tdso to many a far more ancient 

 earthwork, the fortification of a vanished race of warriors. Though 

 it prefers a limestone soil, and flourishes best in a rich mould, the 

 yew is singularly accommodating in this particular, doing very well 

 in well-drained sandstone, as round Tunbridge Wells, and not infre- 

 quently appearing even from a crevice in the masonry of a church- 

 tower or ruined castle-keep, or even amidst the boughs of some other 

 tree, where one of its seeds have been dropped by a bird. 



Its hard, compact, resinous red wood, which, from being susceptible 

 of a high polish, used to be much valued in cabinet-work, and 

 which, in all stages of its growth, forms a most excellent firewood, 

 is ]iot, as is often thought, exceptionally slow in forming, though 

 truly it cannot compare with larch or pine in this respect. The 

 contrary opinion lias been formed from a consideration of the slowly- 

 increasing girth of those large trunks of aged yews, which are so dis- 

 proportionately large as compared with the extent of bough and 

 leafage, that the formation upon them of the very thinnest annual 

 growth of wood represents really a very fair total cubic amount. 

 From tlie measurement of the layers of annual gi-owth in many 



