THE COMMON YEW 



In Japan Taxus cuspidata is found scattered 

 through woods and over the countryside from the 

 south to the extreme north, but is nowhere common. 

 I saw more of it in Hokkaido than anywhere else 

 but even there it is now rare. Its wood is useful 

 for a variety of purposes and lasts especially well 

 underground. Of late it has been used in Japan as 

 pencil-wood. On the central slopes of the Diamond 

 Mountains in central Korea grow more trees and 

 finer specimens than I have seen elsewhere. Scat- 

 tered through woods of Spruce, Fir, Oak, Birch, and 

 other broad-leaf trees are hundreds of specimens — 

 trees from 40 to 60 feet tall, and from 6 to 10 feet in 

 girth, with large, spreading branches forming hand- 

 some crowns. On the Korean island of Quelpaert, 

 in pure woods of Hornbeam, I found the Japanese 

 Yew in bush form to be a common undergrowth. 

 In Japanese gardens it is a favourite as a low, clipped 

 bush, and it is also used as a hedge-plant, but not 

 extensively. It was one of those garden forms {nana) 

 that was first introduced into this country and this 

 has been propagated largely by cuttings. It is a 

 low, wide-spreading shrub with short leaves. There 

 is also another form (densa) which is a low, compact 

 shrub. When seedlings from these dwarf forms are 

 raised they revert to the tree type. The first tree- 

 forms of this Yew raised in this country were from 



