VARIETIES OF TAXUS BACCATA. 129 



fsilcately curved upwards, dark green above with a glaucous bluish tint 



Ill-low. 



T. baccata glauea, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 735. T. baccate uigra, Hort. 



Blue John. 



var. pendula. 



Primary brandies sub-pendulous. Leaves somewhat paler in colour 

 and more or less incurved. Of slow growth and attaining but limited 

 dimensions. gracilis pGndula has the sub-pendulous branches and 

 their appendages more slender and more elongated. A larger shrub 

 than the var. pendula. 



T. bdtecate pendula, Hort. T. baccata Jacksonii, Hort. Weeping Yew. 



var. procumbens. 



A prostrate shrub. Branches much elongated and much ramified, 

 scarcely rising from the ground. Quite distinct from T. canadensis in 

 its ramification and foliage. 



T. baccata procumbens, London, Arb. et Fmt. Brit. IV. 2067. T. baccata 

 cxpansa, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 738. 



var. Washington!!. 



A rather vigorous-growing variety with longer leaves, having their 

 tips and part of the upper surface of a bright golden yellow. 

 T. baccata Washingtonii, Hort. T. canadensis Washington!!, Hort. 



Other delations from the common type have been named columnaris, 

 ro///y>/vYZ, erecta, horizontal i#, inicrotarpa, nana, pyramidalis, recurvata, 

 xf>arti folia, etc., names sufficiently indicative of their most obvious 

 characteristics; but it is doubtful whether these characteristics "Have 

 proved sufficiently constant in most of these varieties to justify the 

 retention of the names, or whether they are still to be found in 

 cultivation.* 



The Yew in V>ne or other of its numerous protean forms is seen 

 everywhere throughout Great Britain, but almost everywhere planted 

 by the hand of Man, so numerous and so useful are the purposes 

 for which it is required. The Yew also grows wild in this country, 

 as everyone knows, and trees that have sprung up spontaneously 

 are to be seen in most of the hilly districts, and also in the copses 

 and hedgerows in the plains especially 011 the chalk formation, but 

 they are relatively few in number not only to what they were in 

 Saxon and Norman times, but also to those that have been raised and 

 planted by human agency; indeed, it is not exceeding the truth to 

 affirm that for every hundred seedling Yews that spring up 

 spontaneously, many thousands are raised by the forester and 

 nurseryman. Many causes have contributed to the extermination of 

 the Yew in the wild state, amongst . which the clearing of the 



* Beissner (Nadelholzkunde, pp. 169176) describes forty-one varieties of the commo 

 Yr\v. including Taxus cuspidata (Sieb. et Zncc.). Many of them are coloured forms < 



common 

 of 



recognised varieties, and others are believed to be identical, or nearly so, with varietie 

 of older introduction. 



