28 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



on Mount Babor in Kabylia in considerable quan- 

 tity beneath the cedar forests at about 4000 feet. 

 It is found in America at various elevations up 

 to 4000 feet. In Great Britain its distribution, 

 although fairly wide, is not so extensive as might 

 have been expected. It was probably this fact, 

 coupled with some ignorance of the amount of 

 existing trees, which led the Hon. Daines Bar- 

 rington to doubt whether the species is indigenous 

 to Great Britain. He never saw the yew ' where 

 it grew in great masses ' or appeared to be sown by 

 the hand of Nature, and he says that the most 

 conspicuous groups are to be found on the Surrey 

 Hills, but in scarcely any instance covering more 

 than an acre, whereas at Cherkley Court, near 

 Leatherhead, there are over ninety acres thus 

 covered with fine old trees evidently sown natur- 

 ally. 



There are also large masses of yews in Kingly e 

 Vale in Sussex ; along the Wye at Tintern, and in 

 Dovedale; on the rocks at Borrodale, and on Conzie 

 Scar near Kendal, all which are truly natural stations. 

 If a proof of its aboriginal character were needed, 

 we have one in its having been found buried 

 in peat-mosses of great age in Ireland, 1 and in 

 those of Matterdale and Patterdale, where, accord- 



1 Cybele Hibernica> 1866. The yew is said to be found from south to 

 north of Ireland, in upland woods and rocky places on mountains ; rare in 

 the wild state. Truly wild in the mountainous parts of the west and north. 



