76 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



have attained the age of seventy-five years, and 

 therefore a diameter of 12 inches. The trunk 

 becomes fractured, and then produces a ring of 

 young shoots. After each of these has grown for a 

 further period of seventy-five years it will also have 

 attained a diameter of 12 inches. We have thus a 

 total diameter of 36 inches, or one-third more than 

 would be produced at the ordinary rate of increase, 

 and representing therefore an apparent age of 225 

 years instead of 1 50 years, the actual age. 



Three yew-trees in Llanbedrog Churchyard, 

 near Pwllheli, well illustrate the effect of early 

 destruction of the stem, and serve to show how 

 such trees as that at Fortingal may have arisen. 

 No. i is 21 feet high, and out of its stem, which is 

 nearly on a level with the ground, eight trees grow 

 and make one bush. No. 2 has twelve trees 

 growing in a similar manner, and No. 3 has five. 



The Rectory tree at Maynooth, having no stem, 

 but a fine head 26 feet high, and spreading 55 feet 

 in diameter, and the Pant Chudw tree in Wales, 

 which has a girth at the ground of 30 feet, and 

 spreads 84 feet, are also good illustrations of com- 

 pound growth. Another example is to be seen 

 at Llanvihangel-Generglen, Cardiganshire, where 

 twelve boles spring together from the ground. 1 



The Irish yew affords a good illustration of the 

 effects of quasi-pollarding. Some of the oldest 



1 Gardener's Chronicle, 1880. 



