I04 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



to him in Norway some at Tufte, on the Christiana fjord, which are 42-43 feet 

 high, with a girth of 3 feet 4 inches to 3 feet 9 inches. The thickest one was, 

 however, 4 feet 10 inches at 2 feet from the ground. He figures (p. 458, fig. 

 84) what is very rarely seen in England, a self-layered yew, and says that he 

 found in a wood at Hallangen a tree 24 feet in length with a diameter of only 6 

 inches. 



In Sweden the yew grows as far north as lat. 63 10', and thrives so well that a 

 tree at Maltesholm, in Scania, is said to have had a diameter of 89 centimetres when 

 only 75 years old. It occurs on the Swedish Island of Aland (lat. 60), but only as a 

 small shrub. 



Its northerly limit in Russia appears to be Esthonia, its eastern limit also passing 

 through that province, and continuing southwards through Livonia, Courland, 

 Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and the Crimea. It occurs also in Denmark,' but only 

 in one place wild, viz., at Munkehjerg, the beautifully situated hotel near the town of 

 Veile, in Jutland. Formerly the yew was much more widely spread in Denmark, 

 but owing to the value of the wood the wild trees have been destroyed in most parts 

 of the country. 



In Belgium, where the yew is often planted, its occurrence in the wild state has 

 been denied by some authors. Wildeman and Durand,^ however, consider that it is 

 probably wild in the neighbourhood of Huy and in Hainault. 



In France' it occurs chiefly in mountainous regions, as in the Vosges 

 (where it is rare), Jura, Cevennes, Pyrenees, and Corsica. In the Pyrenees it 

 ascends to 5400 feet, and, according to Bubani,* is always rare (due to destruction by 

 human agency), and only occurs on limestone and in cool and shaded situations. In 

 France generally, it is most common on precipices and rocky spots, and nearly always 

 on limestone. It never forms pure woods ; but is, however, remarkably abundant 

 in the forest of Sainte Baume (Department of Var), where the oldest and largest 

 wild yew trees in France occur, some attaining a girth of ii:| feet. In Normandy, 

 according to Gadeau de Kerville,* it is not indigenous, being probably introduced at a 

 very early period before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. It is usually planted 

 in churchyards and cemeteries as in England, and nowhere exceeds 19 metres (about 

 60 feet) in height. The largest in girth, about 33 feet, at 3 feet from the ground, 

 stands in the churchyard of Estry (Calvados). There are also two very fine trees 

 at the church of La Lande Patny (Orne). Several others are figured by this author, 

 of which the one at La Haye de Routot (Eure) is remarkable, on account of having 

 in the interior of its hollow trunk a chapel about 6 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, 

 which was built in 1806, and dedicated to Saint Anne des Ifs by the Bishop of 

 Evreux. 



In Germany, according to Willkomm,* the yew is most abundant in Pomerania, 

 Hanover, and Thuringia, and he instances localities where it forms small pure 

 woods. In the Darmbach forest district in the Eisenach Oberland there are, in 



* Hansen, mjour. Roy. Hort. Soc. xiv. 1892, p. 314. * Prodrome de la Flore Beige, iii. 6 (1899). 



* Mathieu, Flore Foresliire, 509, Jio (1897). ' Flora Pyrenaa, I. 46 (1897). 



* Les vieux arbres de la Normandie, iii. 359 (1895). ' Forstliche Flora, 275 (1897). 



