256 TAXACEiE 



The Yew has been always regarded as a longer- 

 lived tree than the Oak. Its life is estimated by a 

 well-worked-out consensus of opinion (Veitch, Book 

 of Conifers) at 1,250 years ; we may presume, how- 

 ever, that neither this nor Tennyson's allusion to its 

 *' 1,000 years of gloom," nor even the 900 years we 

 hear so often assigned to the Oak, need be taken to 

 represent anything more than the average limit of 

 life, at which the subject in question can only reason- 

 ably hope to arrive in a robust state of health. That 

 it may linger unhewn and unmolested in a shell-like 

 state of decay can hardly be expected to enter into 

 these calculations. Elwes recounts that the big 

 Yew tree at Tisbury (Wiltshire) contains within 

 its hollow trunk a younger stem. A similar instance 

 of this hydra-headed growth of a young tree rooted 

 in a hollow trunk, rejoicing in all the promise of a 

 perpetual youth, occurs at Downton Hall (Ludlow), 

 the abode of Sir W. Rouse Boughton, and we daresay 

 in many other elsewheres. 



The bewildering question arises to our mind, 

 should such a tree, on a matter of age, be reckoned 

 as a new tree or as the old tree ? If the latter, the 

 plant has seemingly succeeded where the alchemist 

 of old failed, and discovered the elixir of a perpetually 

 prolonged life ; or, again, under this condition of 

 things, what is to become of the record in longevity 

 of our tree life, as a little pleasant and controversial 

 topic of conversation among us over our walnuts 

 and wine ? But revenons a nos moutonSy and to return 

 to our subject, the age of trees as propounded by 

 authorities. Such airily imposed limitations of 

 age, we presume, must not be taken to preclude 

 the possibility of a longer existence, any more 

 than the Psalmist's allotment of three-score and 

 ten years of life conceded to human frailty must 

 be regarded as representing actuarially any final 



