i86 



IRISH GARDENING. 



thoto bij] 



{T. Mncinre. 



Old Yew Tree at Crom Castle, Co. Fermanagh. 



Photographed October, 1908, 



The Old Yew at Crom Castle, 

 Co. Fermanagh. 



By Peter Brock, Orchard Terrace, Enniskillen. 



THE common yew Taxus haccafn occupies 

 a very prominent position among- ancient 

 and ornamental trees. Historically con- 

 sidered, it is the long-est-lived of any oi our 

 native species, outrivalling- even the oak in this 

 respect, and as a decorative tree it is extremely 

 effective in certain positions, its dark leaves and 

 spreadin^^ habit of growth making- a pleasing 

 contrast in combination with other trees. It 

 makes a slow growth, which tends to produce 

 the hard, compact and elastic wood which was 

 so highly prized in the days of the long-bow. 

 In addition to being hard and elastic, it is ex- 

 ceedingly durable, so that it is said " a post ot 

 yew will outlast a post of iron." Before the in- 

 troduction of gunpowder, the long-bow held the 

 place of the firearms of to-day, and so import- 

 ant was it to have a supply of suitable material 

 for bows that the cultivation of the yew was in 

 those days made the subject of royal decrees. 

 One of the letters of the Irish alphabet is de- 

 rived from the yew, and numerous towns and 

 places owQ their names to it, the Gaelic name 

 being inbhar, pronounced nearly like nre. 

 Hence Uregare (short yew) in Limerick, Bally- 

 nure (the town of yews), Terenure (land of 

 yews), Newry, &c. 



The old yew at Crom Castle, the seat of the 

 Earl of Erne, is reputed to be the finest, if not 

 also the oldest, specimen of the trained yew in 

 Ireland. It stands in a well-kept lawn near the 

 ruins of the old castle, the building of which was 

 commenced in 1611, and was burned down in 

 1764. The roots form a mound 20 feet in 

 diameter and 4 feet high ; the stem is only 2 feet 

 high, and has a girth of 12 feet 6 inches at one 

 foot from the ground. The height of the tree 

 is 22 feet 6 inches, and diameter of spread of 

 branches north to south 82 feet,- east to west 

 71 feet, the circumference round extremity of 

 branches is 24^ feet. The branches near the top 

 of the bole had in the youth of the tree been en- 

 twined into a sort of lovers' knot, and have long 

 since become intergrafted (as shown in photo- 

 graph) into a framework of great strength. 

 The object o'i this training or pleating can 

 only be conjectured, as none of the old records 

 seem to refer to it, but it has certainly the effect 

 of enormously strengthening the tree in its old 

 age, and ensuring that the branches shall not 

 cleft off under snowstorms or heavy gales. The 

 strongest branches extend directly outward from 

 the pleated part and rest on a trellising of poles 

 supported by 76 oak posts averaging 5^ feet in 

 height. Viewed from the eastern side it presents 

 the appearance of an enormous green mushroom. 

 It is said that parties of 200 or more have dined 

 under the spread of its branches. 



Unfortunatel}- history has not recorded its 



