THE yjiws. 311 



both sides of the middle nerve, the margins and mid-rib being 

 of a glossy light green colour ; buds, very small, oval, and 

 covered with a few blunt persistent scales. Branches, nume- 

 rous, much divided, horizontally spreading, and sometimes in 

 whorls ; lateral ones and branchlets, in two rows, flat, slender, 

 closely placed in clusters towards the extremities, frequently 

 confused, short, and spreading. Fruit, said to be like that of 

 the common Yew, but much smaller. 



A low, spreading, depressed shrub, with numerous flat spread- 

 ing branches, thickly covered with flat sombre green leaves, 

 seldom grooving more than two or three feet high, and found 

 on the mountains of Japan. 



It is quite hardy. 



No. 2. Taxus baccata, Linnceus, the Common Yew, 

 Syn. Taxus baccata vulgaris, Endlicher. 



Leaves, in two rows, crowded, linear, slightly curved, or 

 falcate, pointed, flat, entire, and slightly revolute on the mar- 

 gins ; from three quarters of an inch to an inch and a quarter 

 long, and one line and a half broad, of a dark shining green 

 above, much paler below, with a prominent mid-rib, terminat- 

 ing in a small point at the apex. Branches, spreading, much 

 divided, and dense ; branchlets, long, slender, and drooping. 

 Male flowers, axillary. Berries, rounded, glutinous, drooping, 

 open at the top, and enclosing a brown oval partially naked 

 nut, unconnected with the fleshy disk, which is of a scarlet 

 colour, and sweet. Seed-leaves, in twos. 



A small tree, or large bush, but when fully grown thirty or 

 forty feet high, with a short stem, and ample spreading head, 

 thickly clothed with branches, and densely set with drooping 

 sombre-green leaves. 



It is found in most parts of Europe at elevations of from 

 1,000 to 4,000 feet, is frequent on the Apennines, the Alps, 

 Greece, Spain, Piedmont, Great Britain, the Pyrenees, the 

 Caucasus, and even in Scandinavia, but is wanting in the Rus- 

 sian empire, except on the mountains of the Crimea and Cau- 

 casus. There are the following numerous varieties : — 



