2o8 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



no more than a slight increase at 4 feet and 6 feet 

 from the orround, and none at the grround Hne. 



In 1885 I found that great care had been taken 

 to preserve this venerable tree ; its gigantic limbs 

 were supported by strong iron chains, and the 

 trunk surrounded by an iron palisade. In its 

 interior two dead trunks could be made out, one 

 within the other, thus showing, as in the Bredhurst 

 and Dinder yews, distinct, successive rings of 

 growth. 



Mr. Bowman, with his trephine, cut out from 

 this tree nine cylinders on one horizontal line, and 

 counted on them -^-:,, nh, 34> 35i' 39» 53. 57. 62, 

 and 66 rings per inch of radius, giving an average 

 growth of an inch in forty-six years. 



Dinder, near Wells. — In the churchyard is an 

 old yew which girths at 3 feet from the ground 

 31 feet. There are three distinct zones of growth. 

 The central one dead ; the second of great thick- 

 ness, with large buttresses towards the interior, 

 which have probably been roots originally. Many 

 recently formed roots are still spreading out in 

 this form. 



Drybnrgh. — A yew stands close to the Abbey 

 Church, ' and is supposed to have been planted 

 at the time the Abbey was founded, in 1136.'^ In 

 1837 it was growing vigorously. The circum- 

 ference at that time was, at i foot from the ground, 



^ Loudon. 



