174 CONIFEROUS TREES 



T. BACCATA ADPRESSA, Carrier e. — One of the 

 most distinct of the many varieties, the broad and 

 short leaves rendering recognition by no means 

 difficult. It is of spreading growth, with short, 

 sub-horizontal branches, and very dark green 

 leaves, arranged in double rows, and inclined 

 upwards and forwards. Each leaf is about half 

 an inch long, and obtusely pointed, while the fruit 

 is vermilion red, the cup usually only half covering 

 the ovoid seed. By many authors this has been 

 described as a species, but, although very distinct 

 both in leaves and fruit, yet the fact that certain 

 specimens have come under my notice bearing 

 both branches of the type and T. b. adpressa, 

 clearly proves the parentage. 



In reply to a letter of mine, the late Mr. F. 

 Arthur Dickson, of the Chester Nurseries, wrote 

 as follows regarding the present shrub : " This 

 yew was discovered by my father, the late Mr. 

 Francis Dickson, somewhere about 1838. It was 

 growing in a bed of seedlings of the common 

 English Yew. It is therefore undoubtedly a seed- 

 ling sport. Being of slow growth, it was neces- 

 sarily slow of propagation, and it took many years 

 to get up a stock upon the grounds of the then 

 firm of F. & J. Dickson, of which my father was 

 the head. I well remember the value my father 

 set by this plant, and his chagrin and vexation 

 when, on his return home after a few days' absence, 

 he learned that a representative of the late firm 

 of Knight & Perry, nurserymen, Chelsea, had, in 

 looking over the nurseries, purchased and taken 

 away with him some half-dozen good-sized plants, 

 as the result of negotiation with an inexperienced 



