.YEW. 383 



cotyledons lengthen and gradually escape from the seed- 

 coat, after absorbing the endosperm, the empty coat then 

 falling away; (5) after a time, the plumule grows up, 

 bearing needle-like foliage-leaves. Various stages in the 

 growth of the seedlings may be found on collecting self- 

 sown seedlings near the Pine trees. 



The seedling shows two striking features. (1) The 

 cotyledons turn green in the absence of light to test this, 

 grow Pine seeds in darkness in the same pot with Bean or 

 Pea seeds, and note that the latter give rise to etiolated 

 chlorophyll-less seedlings, while the Pine seedling becomes 

 green. (2) The earliest foliage-leaves, borne by the 

 plumule during the first year of its growth, are arranged 

 singly and spirally on the stem, but later they give place 

 to scale-leaves, in the axils of which arise the characteristic 

 dwarf-shoots with paired foliage-leaves. 



YEW (TAXUS BACCATA). 



536. General External Characters. In the Yew and 



its allies, the female " flower " consists simply of a single 

 erect ovule borne at the end of an apparently simple 

 axillary bud or short branch of the stem, so that there is 

 no female cone. Yew also differs from Pinus in that the 

 leaves are borne directly upon the ordinary branches or 

 long- shoots, not on dwarf -shoots or spurs. 



The following general characters of the tree should 

 be noted : 



(1) Its usually " deliquescent " habit, owing to the fact 

 that early in life some of the branches tend to grow erect 

 and give the tree several " leaders " in place of a single 

 leading or main shoot this partly accounts for the deeply 

 channelled and ridged character of the trunk, but the 

 ribbing of very old Yew trunks is chiefly due to the upgrowth 

 of strong erect shoots from the base, these encircling the 

 trunk and fusing with it and with each other. 



(2) Its extremely slow growth, as compared with that of 

 Pines, connected with which is its ability to endure greater 

 shade than almost any other Conifer. 



