74 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



many respects a striking one. The bark, which 

 contains the germs of buds or its substitute, im- 

 mediately begins to put forth a profusion of young 

 branches over its whole surface parenchyma. Be- 

 tween these there ensues a struggle for existence ; 

 a few acquire superiority in growth, and the rest 

 die for want of air and light. In the meantime the 

 swelling of the bases of the young shoots has 

 caused them to become welded together, and thus 

 the trunk becomes largely thickened. The branches, 

 which have acquired the pre-eminence, generally to 

 the number of three or four, begin to form a new 

 head, and occasionally are found uniting to form a 

 new trunk. But the head may be again destroyed 

 and the new trunk killed, and both may be again 

 reproduced as at first. In this way, three or 

 even four, concentric rings may arise, the inner 

 ones being dead and the outer ones living. A 

 striking illustration of the result of injury to 

 the primary trunk is to be seen at Court Lodge, 

 near Shorne, in the grounds of Mr. Isaac Winch. 

 The central trunk, which is a foot in diameter, was 

 broken off, probably by the fall of another tree, at 

 7 feet from the ground, being at this time (1889) 

 about seventy years old. At 4 feet from the 

 ground it is surrounded by a vigorous growth of 

 boughs, some of which measure 8 inches in 

 diameter. The circumference of the new trunk at 

 this point is 9 feet. If we take this girth as repre- 



