io8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



a rich reddish brown colour, and when polished or carved is extremely hand- 

 some. 



The Japanese yew also occurs in Saghalien, the Kurile Isles,' Amurland, and 

 Manchuria, Apparently it is very variable in habit, as Maximowicz'' regarded the 

 Amurland plant as a mere shrub, though in one place in the mountains he saw a tree 

 a foot in diameter. Trautvetter^ saw no difference between the yew in Amurland 

 and in Europe, except that the seed of the former was smaller and more pointed. 



The Japanese yew was introduced into England between the years 1854 and 

 1856 by Fortune," who states that he received it from Mr. Beale in Shanghai, to 

 whom it had been sent from Japan. It was first cultivated and propagated by 

 Mr. Glendinning of the Chiswick Nursery. It has not grown to be a tree in 

 England so far as we know, as it assumes rather the form of a large branching shrub 

 with two or three stems. It is usually distinguished from the other yews, as seen in 

 cultivation, by the peculiar yellow colour of the under-surface of the leaves, which 

 are broad, somewhat leathery in texture, and abruptly pointed. This yellow colour 

 is not, however, confined to the Japanese yew, as it occurs in the Chinese yew, and 

 also apparently in some Pyrenean specimens, and is perhaps due to climatic 

 influences. 



According to Sargent* the Japanese yew was introduced into the eastern 

 United States in 1862, and has proved to be perfectly hardy as far north as Boston. 

 It grows rapidly in cultivation, and promises to become a large long-lived tree. 

 Sargent speaks of a dwarf compact form of this plant with short dark green leaves in 

 cultivation in the United States, which probably originated in Japanese gardens. 

 It often appears under the name of Taxus brevifolia, but must not be confounded 

 with the true Taxus brevifolia of the Pacific coast. This is doubtless the Taxus 

 cuspidata, var. compacta, of the Kew Hand List, of which we have seen no specimen. 

 Sargent has also seen in California a yew with fastigiate, somewhat spreading 

 branches, which had been imported from Japan, evidently another garden variety 

 of Taxus cuspidata. 



III. Chinese Yew, var. sinensis. The yew has only been found in China, in the 

 provinces of Hupeh and Szechuan, where it is a very rare tree in the mountains at 

 6000 to 8000 feet, occurring on wooded cliffs. The largest tree seen by Henry was 

 about 20 feet in height, but with a girth of 7 or 8 feet. The bark is almost a bright 

 red in colour. Franchet'' considered the Chinese yew to resemble Taxus cuspidata, 

 S. et Z., which in his opinion does not seem to differ from the European yew in any 

 positive character. The Chinese mountaineers reported the timber to be red, strong, 

 and of fine quality, and called the tree Kuan-yin-sha, " the fir of the Goddess of 

 Mercy." 



IV. Pacific Coast Yew, var. brevifolia. Though this tree was introduced by 

 William Lobb in 1854," it is still very rare, and we know no specimens of any size in 



> Miyabe, "Flora of Kurile Isles," in Mem. Boston Soc. Nal. Hist. iv. 261 (1890). 



* Primitia Flora Amurensis, 259 (1859). 



* Card. Chron. i860, p. 170. Article by Fortune on Chinese Plants introduced during his travels in China in 1854-1856. 



Garden and Forest, 1897, p. 402. * Jour, de Bot. 1899, p. 264. 



Veitch's Man. Coni/era, ed. I, 305 (1881). 



