no The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



A. Fastigiate Forms. In these the branches take an upward direction (vertical 

 or ascending), and the leaves tend to spread out radially from the branchlets. 



I. Wax. fastigiata, Irish Yew, Florencecourt Yew. 



Taxus baccata fastigiata, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2066 (1838). 

 Taxus fastigiata, Lindley, Syn. Brit. Flora, 241 (1829). 

 Taxus hibemica. Hook, ex Loudon, loc. cit. 



Columnar and compact in habit, all the branches and branchlets being directed 

 vertically upwards. Branches stout, branchlets few and short. Leaves, always 

 spreading radially in all directions around the branchlets, dark green and shining, with 

 the apex usually more obtuse than in the common yew. Dr. Masters considers the 

 Irish yew to be a juvenile form,' in which the characters of the seedling (the radial 

 disposition of the leaves and the upright habit) are preserved throughout the life of 

 the plant. As the original tree was a female, and the variety is propagated by cuttings, 

 all Irish yews are of the same sex. When they bear flowers they are generally fertilised 

 by the pollen of common yews growing in their neighbourhood, and the seed resulting, 

 when planted, generally produces plants indistinguishable from the common yew.^ 

 Dr. Masters' received from Mr. Tillett of Sprowston, near Norwich, sprays of an Irish 

 yew which bore male flowers. This was apparently an instance of a monoecious 

 tree, a phenomenon which occurs though rarely in the common yew. No true male 

 Irish yew has ever been met with. The aril of the Irish yew differs usually from 

 that of the common form in being more oblong in shape. 



The Irish yew was discovered^ in the mountains of Fermanagh above Florence- 

 court by a farmer named Willis about the year 1780. He found two plants, one of 

 which he planted in his own garden, and is now no longer living. The other was 

 planted at Florencecourt, the seat of the Earl of Enniskillen ; and from it cuttings 

 were distributed, which are the source of all the Irish yews in cultivation. The 

 original tree is still living, and a figure of it is given in Veitch's Manual, p. 141, as it 

 appeared about thirty years ago. Kent says that in 1900 it had an open straggling 

 appearance. 



One of the finest Irish yews known to us is that at Seaforde, near Clough, Co. 

 Down, the seat of Major W. G. Forde. This tree was reported to be i^y feet high 

 in 1888,* and 35^ feet in 1903.' A plate of it is given (Plate 58), reproduced from a 

 photograph kindly sent us by the owner, who reports the present measurements 

 (1905) to be: Height, j,'] feet; girth at the ground, 9 feet; circumference of 

 branches at 20 feet from the ground, 91 feet. 



Two large trees exist at Comber, Co. Down, of which Mr. Justice Andrews 

 gives the following particulars in a letter : 



" The Irish upright yew trees at Comber, mentioned in Mackay's Flora 

 Hibemica (1836), p. 260, are the two large yews in the garden beside ' Araghmore,' 

 the residence of Mrs. John Andrews. My earliest recollection of them goes back 



Card. Chrtm. 1 89 1, x. 68. 



* Sir C. Strickland writes in Gard. Chron. 1877, vii. 151 : "All the plants I have raised from Irish yew berries are 

 exactly like the common yew." But Elwes saw at Ortun Hnll three seedlings from the Irish yew of which one was fastigiate 

 in habit. Gard. Chron. 1873, p. 1336. < Ilnd. 1888, iv. 484. 



' Ibid. 1903, xxxiiL 60. " Loudon figures one of these on p. 2067. 



