408 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. Lxvii.' 



England, and one in Scotland. He reckoned the age of 

 one of the yews near Fountains Abbey to be more than 

 twelve centuries, taking a measurement of Pennant's as 

 the basis of his computation. In this instance he confirms 

 his reckoning by affirming that the tree was known in the 

 year 1132 — at the time when the foundations of the 

 Abbey were laid. This statement is unreliable, and is due 

 entirely to a passage in Burton's " Yorkshire Monasteries," 

 bearing the comparatively recent date of 1757, where it 

 is said — " We are told by tradition, the monks resided 

 under these yews whilst they built the monastery." The 

 yew at Crowhurst already mentioned, when speaking of 

 John Evelyn, De Gandolle estimated to be fourteen 

 centuries old. The age of another yew at Braburn, in Kent, 

 he estimated at three thousand years. And the yew 

 at Fortingall, in Scotland, at twenty-five to twenty-six 

 centuries. The irregularity which is apparent in the 

 computed ages of these four yews is vastly augmented by 

 the ages of yew trees in general, and De Gandolle contends 

 that such an irregularity is just what might be expected, 

 and he regards the irregularity as confirmatory of the 

 theory of the indefinite longevity of trees. 



About 1830, or at the time when it seems the theory might 

 be most generally accepted. Prof. Burnett assigned sixteen 

 hundred years as the age of the Cowthorpe Oak. That 

 Prof. Burnett made the assertion from a computation made 

 according to De Candolle's theory there is no doubt, and 

 his computation must have been based on some published 

 measurement, for, as far as can be gathered. Prof. Burnett 

 was never at Cowthorpe. Nevertheless Prof. Burnett's 

 estimate of the age of the Cowthorpe Oak is commonly 

 received, but as we believe it to be inaccurate and greatly 

 exaggerated, we imply a want of faith in the basis of his 

 computations ; and this is so. We regard De Candolle's 

 theory as altogether untrue, and not sustained by facts. 

 In justification of these remarks, let us consider the 

 photograph. 



The picture (Photo. No. 6) represents a portion of the bole 

 of an oak as it was laid in the timber yard of Messrs. 

 AckroydjOf Birkenshaw, in August 1894. It had been grown 

 at Ravenfield, in an ancient park situated midway between 



