142 TAXUS BREVIFOLIA. 



on the mountains above Florence Court, two plants of this tree. 

 These he dug up, and planted one in his own garden. He took the other 

 down to his landlord at Mount Florence, where it was planted. The 

 tree that was planted in his own garden remained there till the year 

 1865, when it died. The other is still alive at Florence Court, and 

 is the one from which the millions of plants now distributed in all 

 parts have sprung. The first cuttings were given by my father, 

 the Earl of Enniskillen, to Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, then the 

 largest nurserymen about London.' Signed, Enniskillen, Rossie Priory, 

 September 8th, 1867." 



The illustration, from a photograph sent to Messrs. Veitch by the late 

 Earl of Enniskillen, represents the original Irish Yew at Florence Court 

 as seen about twenty -live years ago ; at the present time it has a more 

 open, straggling habit and also a somewhat unhealthy appearance 

 believed to have been caused by some laurels being allowed to grow 

 too freely around it but which have since been cut away. 



The wood of the Yew is exceedingly hard and close-grained, of a 

 beautiful reddish brown colour, susceptible of a high polish, and very 

 durable, tough and 'elastic. It was also formerly much used in the 

 manufacture of articles of domestic furniture, many antique and curious 

 specimens of which are still preserved in museums, etc. The spray 

 and foliage of the Yew are poisonous to cattle. The berries are 

 glutinous, and have a sweet taste ; they are often eaten by children 

 without being followed by harmful consequences. The kernel, too, is 

 edible, and has a bitter flavour not unlike that of the seeds of the 

 Stone Pine (Pinus j tinea). 



Taxus brevifolia. 



" A tree usually 40 50 but occasionally 70 80 feet in height 

 with a straight trunk 1 2 feet thick, rarely more, frequently 

 unsymmetrical and irregularly lobed, and with long, slender, horizontal 

 or slightly pendulous branches. Bark of trunk about 0*25 inch thick, 

 covered with small, thick, dark red-purple scales which 011 falling 

 expose a bright red-purple inner bark. Branchlets slender ; buds small 

 with loosely imbricated yellow-green scales. Leaves 0*5 0'625 inch 

 long, dark yellow-green above, paler below with stout midribs and 

 slender petioles, persistent four five years." Fructification as in the 

 common Yew. Sargent, Silra of North America, X. 65, t. 514. 



Taxus brevifolia, Nuttall, Sylva, III. 86, t. 108 (1849). Carriere, Traite Conif. 

 ed. II. 742. Hoopes, Evergreens, 383. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 501. 

 Brewer and Watson, Bot. Califor. II. 110. Macoun, Cat. Canad. Plants, 463. 

 Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 392. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 177. Masters in Journ. R. 

 Hort. Soc. XIV. 249 



T. Boursieri, Carriere, Rev. Hort. 1854, p. 228, with fig. ; and Traite Conif. 

 ed. II. 739. 



T. Lindleyana, Murray in Edinb. New Phil. Journ. I. 294 (1855) 



Eng. California!! Yew. Anier. Western Yew. Fr. If de Californie. Germ. 

 Kurxbliitteriger Eibenbaum. 



Taxus brevifolia is widely distributed over the Pacific region of 

 north-west America from Queen Charlotte's Island to south California, 

 but nowhere very abundant ; it ascends the Selkirk mountains in 

 British Columbia to 4,000 feet, and the western slopes of the Sierra 



