Taxus 105 



addition to many young plants, 311 yew trees of i foot or more in girth of stem. 

 On the Veronica mountain at Angelroda in Thuringia, there are about 150 yew trees, 

 of which the largest are possibly 600 years old. Apparently there were anciently 

 two zones of distribution of the yew in Central Europe a northern one which 

 extended from the Netherlands through the coast provinces of Germany to the 

 eastern shore of the Gulf of Riga, and a southern area comprising the mountainous 

 regions of the Vosges, Jura, Black Forest, the whole of the Alps to Croatia, and the 

 Carpathians. The yew also occurred in the hilly land of central Germany, where, 

 at the present time, according to Drude,' it is indififerent to soil, as it grows on 

 the muschelkalk near Gottingen, on the dolomite of Suntel in the Weser mountain 

 district, and on primitive rock on the southern slope of the Rachel (up to 3300 feet 

 altitude). On the dolomite it occurs as isolated trees, while in the ravines and rocky 

 parts of Suntel it forms thick underwood. In the Bavarian Alps it ascends to 3800 

 feet, not being met with below 1 240 feet. 



In Switzerland the yew ascends in the Alps to 4660 feet. The largest and 

 finest yew is at Geistler, near Burgdorf, at an elevation of 2400 feet above the sea. 

 This tree is well figured in Les Arbres de la Suisse, t. xii., and is said to be 50 feet 

 high by 12 feet in girth at 4 feet above the ground ; it divides into several stems at 

 about 10 feet up. 



In Austria- Hungary the yew occurs in the Carpathians and the Alps, ascend- 

 ing in Transylvania to 5400 feet; and it is reported to occur in Roumania and 

 Bulgaria. 



The yew is generally distributed throughout the mountains of the Iberian 

 Peninsula. In Spain, according to Laguna,' it almost always occurs as isolated trees, 

 and is found in all the Cordilleras from the Sierra Nevada to the Pyrenees and the 

 mountains of Asturias, also in the Balearic Isles. He has only seen it forming pure 

 forest in the Sierra Mariola, near to Alcoy (Valencia). In the high part of that 

 chain on its northern slope there exist what are called the Teixeras de Agres, groups 

 of yews belonging to the town of Agres. Here, in 1870, there were still living some 

 hundreds of ancient yews, with some young trees. 



Gadow ^ says, " There are numerous large and small trees forming a scattered 

 forest, between Riano and Cistierna at about 3600 feet elevation, the terrain 

 belonging to the reddish Permian rubble. The yew tree is widely distributed 

 throughout the Spanish mountains and on the Serra da Estrella (in Portugal), 

 but is rare everywhere. Most of the trees are solitary and old, with decaying tops! 

 Younger trees are ruthlessly destroyed by their branches being lopped off, to be 

 used in the cattlefolds partly instead of straw, and partly for repairing the fences 

 and roofs. The vernacular name is Tejo." 



Willkomm* states that in the high mountains of Spain it occurs as isolated 

 stunted trees, and says that on the Sierra de la Nieve there was an old yew tree 

 which measured only 17 feet in height, although it had a girth of \^\ feet. In the 

 south of Spain it ascends to 6500 feet. 



' Hercynische Flormbeziri, 114 (1902). 2 Flore Forestal Espaflola, i. 114 (1883) 



3 Northern Spain, 387 (1897). t PfianzenverbreUung auf der Ibirischen Halbinzel, 251 (1896). 



