CHAPTER III 



Age of yew-trees — Considered slow-growing — Mode of estimating 

 age — Traditional accounts — Age of contiguous buildings — De 

 Candolle's method of calculating age — Rings of growth — In 

 young trees, correct — In old, erroneous — Rejuvenescence — 

 Increase by welding of young shoots — Variable growth. 



We owe to De Candolle, the great Swiss botanist, 

 some of the erroneous views which are prevalent 

 as to the extreme age which this tree is supposed 

 to attain. 



He held that there are no set limits for the 

 duration of the life of trees, and he arrived at the 

 conclusion that, were it not for the results of acci- 

 dents or disease, there is no natural cause by which 

 a period is put to their existence. But the same 

 might be said of some animals under similar con- 

 ditions, and indeed there is a very close analogy 

 between the growth of a yew-tree and that of a coral. 



In his mode of estimating age, however, he 

 assumed that the tree's growth took place by a 

 regular deposition of concentric layers, which, 

 except in the case of young yews, is very wide of 

 the truth, and hence calculations founded on this 

 assumption are found to be very fallacious. 



' It is not, as commonly stated, Malpighi, but the 



