64 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 
tions of its trunk; and on the origin of its fre- 
quent occurrence in churchyards.” Although 
the Yew was known to be of slower growth and 
greater durability than any other European tree, 
he showed that its actual age could only be ap- 
proximated by an analysis of sections, and exami- 
nations of annual rings. De Candolle had first ap- 
plied this method to ascertain the age of trees ; but 
by assigning too little space for the rings in young 
trees, and too much for those in old, he made the 
young trees too old, and the old too young. Mr. 
Bowman improved upon and corrected his pro- 
cess. With great accuracy, by the aid of an in- 
strument made for the purpose, he obtained sec- 
tions of the annual rings of trees, from different 
sides of their trunk; and by comparing these 
with each other, marking the proportion between 
the number of rings and the space occupied by 
them at different periods of growth, and then 
striking the average of these separate observa- 
tions,—he arrived at a general result which led 
him to conclude, that there were trees still in ex- 
istence of enormous antiquity,—one in Gresford 
Churchyard near Wrexham, which these calcu- 
lations made 1419 years old,—another in Darley 
in the Dale, 2006; and some yet standing he 
supposed might have an age of more than 3000 
