USES OF WOOD. 235 



is very remarkable, and as an illustration of this 

 fact, it may be stated that in 280 years the tree 

 only adds twenty inches to its diameter, for 

 280 annual concentric rings have been counted 

 within a diameter of twenty inches. This state- 

 ment must, of course, be taken as an average one ; 

 for with the Yew, as with other trees, cold and 

 ungenial, and warm and ' growing * seasons make 

 some difference, though probably not any appre- 

 ciable difference in most cases, for the ' cycles ' 

 of weather would be pretty nearly equalized in a 

 space of 280 years. It will be easily understood 

 that Yew timber makes one of the finest woods 

 for the purposes of the cabinet-maker. In olden 

 times, it is well known, it was employed in the 

 making of bows, and amongst its pre-eminently 

 valuable qualifications in the present day is not 

 only its adaptibility for manufacturing into the 

 finest descriptions of furniture and frame- work, but 

 for employment in all out door service requiring 

 exceptional durability. One remarkable proof of 

 the estimation in which the Yew is held in the 

 English New Forest is a saying of the inhabitants 

 that ' a post of Yew will outlast a post of iron.' 



