466 THE YEW-TREE FAMILY. 



sometimes dilated and lobed, and in that case fork-veined, indicating 

 the approach of this family to the Ferns. The species, which amount 

 to about fifty, are widely distributed in the milder parts of the world, 

 and are in many cases valued for their hard and beautiful timber. 

 In England they are known only in the common yew, and in a few 

 rare exotics. The Cephalotaxus Fortuni of the north of China, a 

 magnificent tree when full grown, with large, deep-green revolute 

 leaves, three or four inches long, and of a silvery hue on the under- 

 surface, is grown at Norcliffe j and occasionally there may be seen a 

 young tree of the Japanese Salisburia, the leaves of which resemble 

 those of a maiden-hair fern, but are two or three inches in length and 

 breadth. 



The common yew is a dark and sombre evergreen, with a short, 

 thick and massive trunk, and widely-spreading branches. The leaves 

 are about an inch in length, narrow linear, entire, glossy, and with the 

 margins somewhat revolute ; they are inserted all round the twigs, but 

 spread in two opposite ranks, with all the upper surfaces in the same 

 plane. The flowers are dioecious, that is to say, the males and females 

 grow on difierent trees, the former in little oval and yellowish clusters, 

 sessile in the axils of the leaves, and very numerous. The females are 

 similarly placed, and followed in autumn by crimson fruits half an 

 inch long, and in figure resembling a little acorn, only that the cup 

 is succulent with viscid juice, and the ovule within it considerably 

 shorter. Sometimes the cup is small and green. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 Common Yew — {Taxus haccata.) 



Everywhere in gardens, plantations, and churchyards, and sometimes 

 in woods and in remote places, where it probably is wild. The oldest 

 specimens in the neighbourhood stand in the churchyards of Lymm, 

 Warburton and Bowdon ; and one of the handsomest in the churchyard 

 at Mobberley. At Bank Hall, near Hale, there is a row of about 

 sixteen. A dwarf variety, called the Irish-yew, is also common in 

 gardens. Fl. March, April. 



E. B. xi. 740 ; Baxter, iii. 222. 



The leaves of this celebrated tree ai"e poisonous, but the fruit may be eaten 

 witli safety. 



