380 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



not, therefore, even the barrenest ground at liigh altitudes, and on 

 the coldest of our mountains, be profitably replenished in large 

 tracts with yew for cover, and shelter for \iltimate planting? It 

 is of geological antiquity, and formed part of the primeval forests 

 of this country at a period long anterior to historic times. It 

 has been found among the submerged trees along the Norfolk 

 coast, near Cromer ; ^ and it again presents itself in another wide 

 forest underlying the Bristol Channel, in the recesses of which bones 

 and other animal remains have been found, showing that at son)e 

 early epoch the elephant, rhinoceros, and beaver have roamed 

 at will under its shadow. The yew is also indigenous to parts of 

 Eastern and Western Asia, and if Taxus Canadensis be only 

 a variety of T. baccata, as was supposed by Loudon, it extends 

 its geographical distribution to the North American continent. 



Like most trees of slow growth — slow as compared with tlie 

 more rapid growth and maturity of most of our deciduous 

 trees, and even the coniferre, to which we are accustomed — the yew 

 is long in attaining maturity, and many centuries elajjse ere it 

 shows decay ; a fact which we learn from the records of celebrated 

 trees noAv extinct, as well as from others still in existence, 

 whose history can be traced for upwards of a thousand years. 

 M. de Candolle, and several other botanists of eminence, do not 

 hesitate to assign, and with considerable show of reason and 

 scientific data, a much longer lifetime to some of our still 

 existing yew trees. Eeference is fully made to several such 

 specimens in this paper, and details are given of their present 

 measurements and condition in the Tabulated Appendix. 



Whether considered from the deep and perpetual sombre verdure 

 of its foliage, conjointly with its great longevity and freedom from 

 decay, as emblematic of immortality, the yew has acquired every- 

 where an almost sacred character. This association of the tree with 

 religion and places of worship is of very ancient date. Many hypo- 

 theses have been formed to explain the connection between the yew 

 and its site in proximity to abbeys and old churches or churchyards, 

 and their relation to such old trees, for it is uncertain in many in- 

 stances throughout the country whether the churches or religious 

 houses were not planted beside, and for some reason in association 

 with, the old trees already standing. Similar suppositions prevail 

 in regard to some of our old standing stone circles, considered as 

 places of worship, and which, in process of time, came not only to 

 ' Dr llaiiisay, Pliy.sical Geogiapliy of Great Britain, !•. lo-i. 



