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flat, headed. They are rarely more than about thirty feet 

 high, though that at Harlington, the tallest by far in 

 England, attains to an altitude of fifty-eight feet. In a 

 typical yew-tree the numerous branches spread boldly out 

 in more or less radiate fashion, the lower ones being nearly 

 or quite horizontal, or even pendulous. 



The yew is indigenous to these isles, a genuine ancient 

 Briton, growing in wild, rocky, and mountainous districts 

 in the north and west, and on the great downlands of the 

 south. It prefers stiff calcareous soil, but thrives under 

 other conditions ; battling for centuries against the roaring 

 gales, caring nothing for heat or cold ; generation after 

 generation of men passing away, and each gazing on it in 

 its imperturbable fixedness and endurance. The tree is no 

 less at home throughout Europe, flourishing on the slopes 

 of the Vosges, the Jura range, the Pyrenees, the Alps, and 

 the Apennines, equally at home, too, in the Caucasus and on 

 the Himalaya, in Japan and the Philippines, and on the 

 mountains of Canada and the United States. 



The trunk of an old yew-tree becomes wonderfully split 

 and contorted, while its bark, dark brown in colour, is 

 rough and cracked, peeling away very easily, the upper 

 layer being cast off and renewed each year. The wood is 

 very hard and compact in grain and beautifully mottled in 

 shades of reddish-orange and dark brown. Virgil repeatedly 

 calls it the tough and stubborn yew, and commends it for 

 weapons, while many a long year before his day its tenacity 

 commended it to the Assyrians, and amongst the long-buried 

 remains of great Nineveh are unearthed in this our day 

 objects made from its wood. It has been used a good 

 deal for wood-inlay, spoons, cups, axle-trees, cogs for mill- 



