82 FAMILIAR TREES 



Cambridgeshire fens and the submerged " moor-logs " 

 at the mouth of the Thames, it is as perfectly pre- 

 served as bog-oak, being of a rich brown tint ; and 

 under the microscope it exhibits in its woody fibres, 

 as when alive, a unique combination of " bordered 

 pits " and spiral lines. Whilst, moreover, we may 

 often see trees in situations that suggest their having 

 been planted, no one can have visited the groves of 

 Yew in Cranborne Chase, or the Hampshire Downs, 

 or the basaltic hill of Arely, in Staffordshire, or have 

 noticed its sporadic occurrence round Coulsdon in 

 Surrey, or Tunbridge Wells, without being convinced 

 of its truly indigenous character. It is curious to 

 follow with the eye a line of sombre Yews winding 

 along the downs in Surrey or Kent, marking the 

 so-called Pilgrims' Way a road which leads not only 

 to many a quaint, little sequestered Norman church, 

 with perchance an exceptionally venerable Yew 

 shadowing its silent graves, but also to many a far 

 more ancient earthwork. 



The wood of the Yew, which, from being sus- 

 ceptible of a high polish, used to be much valued in 

 cabinet-work, is not, as is often thought, exceptionally 

 slow in forming. The contrary opinion has been 

 formed from a consideration of the slowly-increasing 

 girth of those large trunks of aged Yews w T hich are 

 so disproportionately large, as compared with the 

 extent of bough and leafage, that the formation upon 

 them of the very thinnest growth of wood represents 

 really a very fair total cubic amount. Unlike that 

 of other Conifers, the wood of the Yew contains no 

 resin. 



