WOODY PLANTS FOR NEW ENGLAND 67 



Tamarlx pentandra FlVESTAMEN TamARIX 



Slender, flopping branches and fine, scale-like leaves give this large deciduous 

 shrub a decidedly exotic aspect. Not too hardy inland, it can be used effec- 

 tively for mass planting near the sea. This species flowers in large pink panicles 

 in August and September. 



TAXUS BACCATA var. REPANDENS Spreading English Yew 



This quite low and broadly spreading variety with its long, dark leaves is 

 one of the hardiest and most commonly planted forms of the English Yew 

 throughout New England. Except in extremely bleak situations it can be 

 used as a low plant to face off groups, or for other similar planting purposes. 

 For such uses it may be looked upon as an improvement over the native 

 Taxus canadensis. 



Taxus canadensis CANADA Yew 



As seen in the wild throughout New England, this native Yew is a straggling, 

 ground-cover plant. As such, it could well be more used in roadside or natural 

 development for clothing shady areas in association with the native Hemlock. 

 In cultivation, however, it thickens up into a rather more compact, fine-textured 

 plant and does reasonably well if given a protected, partially shaded spot. It 

 burns badly in winter in open locations and on such areas should give way to 

 more satisfactory forms of foreign species. Though the type withstands 

 shearing very well, var. stricta which is more dense and less vigorous in 

 growth should be selected if a low, sheared hedge of this species is desired. 



TAXUS CUSPIDATA JAPANESE YEW 



upright seedling form. This is the upright-growing, multiple- 

 stemmed, type plant such as that usually obtained from seed and generally 

 catalogued by nurserymen as the variety capitata. Seedlings of this species 

 show considerable variation and numerous selections have been made and 

 named. For individual specimens almost any of the seedlings are good and are, 

 in general, much hardier than any of the numerous forms of T. baccata. How- 

 ever, for plants to be fitted into a close-clipped hedge, it is well to select indi- 

 viduals of about uniform texture, growth-rate, and color. Such upright 

 specimens can be reproduced vegetatively only by making cuttings from true 

 terminal growth which shows a radial distribution of lateral buds. On the 

 whole, however, selection is so well advanced that it is much better to choose 

 the progeny of a desirable clon than to depend on seedlings. 



Yews, in general, withstand considerable shearing and in New England will 

 grow quite satisfactorily in light soils furnished with but an ordinary supply 

 of moisture. Under such conditions they will, of course, respond quite favorably 

 to an increased addition of organic material applied as a mulch. In wilder 

 districts they need winter protection from the native deer which avidly seek 

 out the young shoots of the exotic Yews as food. 



spreading FORM. This is the form produced by rooting dorsi-ventral side- 

 branches of the type plant and may be found listed erroneously as the type. 

 Since seedlings are variable, the plants placed in this category can be no 

 better than the mother plants from which they have been propagated. Thus, 

 here is to be found a mixed population of textures, colors, and, to a certain 

 degree, growth habits. If taken from parent plants of good color, interesting 

 texture, and dense habit, this form of the Yew presents one of the finest and 

 most useful of our free-growing conifers. An ideal plant has its main branches 

 reaching outward and upward and presents an interesting foliage mass which 

 is somewhat broader than tall and is made interestingly irregular in outline 

 by the horizontally extending branchlets. 



