1885.] HISTORICAL NOTICE OF CELEBRATFA:> TREES. 1G7 



shire, had a mean circumference of 29^ feet, and would thus be 

 about IGOO years old. In the woods of Cliefden, near Hedsor in 

 Buckinghamshire, there are some extraordinary remains of yew trees, 

 and there is one called the Hedsor yew, still in health and vigorous, 

 which measures 27 feet in diameter, or upwards of 84 in girth. 

 This venerable patriarch would therefore claim to be 3900 years old, 

 or to have been about sixty years old at the time of the birth of 

 Abraham. 



In Scotland the fine yew at Dryburgh Abbey is supposed to 

 have been planted when the abbey was founded in 1136 ; it is still 

 vigorous, and has a trunk only 12 feet in circumference. Its 

 calculated age would be scarcely 600 years ; so that in this case, at 

 least, De Candolle's calculation yields a less age than the true one. 

 But according to Professor Henslow, the yew in England increases 

 more rapidly than the G-enevese botanist supposes. Thus there are 

 two fine healthy trees of this kind at Basildon in Berkshire, in the 

 churchyard, and which, according to the parish register, were planted 

 in 1726. In 1834 they were nearly of the same dimensions, and 

 the largest measured 9 feet 3 inches in circumference at 4 feet from 

 the ground. This gives 424 lines for its diameter, or about 4 lines 

 per annum as the mean rate of increase for a century. It appears, 

 however, from some entries in the same register, that the tree had 

 grown more rapidly during the former half of this period than it did 

 latterly. " Taking these data as a guide," continues Henslow, " for 

 estimating the ages of some old yew trees in the churchyards of 

 two neighbouring parishes, it would seem that De Candolle's calcula- 

 tions should be reduced by about one-third in order to obtain a 

 more correct approximation than that which he had given for trees 

 of this description." It was found, for instance, that the layers of 

 wood at different depths, in a hollow yew tree, at Cholsey in Berk- 

 shire, varied considerably in thickness, and that some of those which 

 had been very recently deposited were 2| lines, whilst others which 

 were more than a century older were only half a line in thickness. 

 This tree was between 14 and 15 feet in circumference; and there 

 is another in the churchyard of the neighbouring parish of Aldworth, 

 which is more than 19 feet in circumference, which, estimated by 

 De Candolle's rule, ought to be above 900 years old, but by Henslow's, 

 is only about 600 years. I cannot conclude this notice of the yew 

 tree without alluding to that in Fortingal churchyard in Perthshire. 

 The trunk of this was 52 feet in circumference when measured by 

 the Hon. Daines Barrington in 1769, or 56 feet 6 inches according 

 to Pennant, who measured it the following year, the difference being, 

 in all probability, owing to the two measurements having been taken 

 at different heiGjhts above the level of the "round. In Barriuf'ton's 



