1 86 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



years. In 1834, thirty-eight years afterwards, it 

 had only increased 3 inches, which points to some 

 error in measurement, for it is scarcely probable 

 that so rapidly growing a tree should have received 

 so sudden an arrest. Professor Henslow suggests 

 that the early measurement may have taken in too 

 much of the root, or that at the time of the latter 

 one the soil may have risen round them. This is 

 very likely to have been the case, as he says, in 

 1834, 'roots lately injured by digging graves.' He 

 adds, ' The rate of increase at 4 feet from the 

 ground is slower than that near the root, upon the 

 whole, in proportion of one fourth nearly.' 1 The 

 rate of growth is, however, an unusually rapid one, 

 as is shown by the following Table : 



ft. in. 



1780 . . . 6 

 1796 ... 8 



3 I 



6 [According to Register. 



8 9 \ 

 1834, at 4 feet . 6 ioJJ J ' 



1889 . . . 9 10 Mr. Money. 



Thus, if we take Christison's estimate of seventy- 

 five years as the time required to produce i foot 

 of diameter, this tree, with a diameter of 3 feet 

 3 inches, would appear as over 250 years old, 

 instead of 163 years, its known age. An analysis 

 of the rate of growth at the periods of measure- 

 ment show some singular results. There are two 



1 Nature, Oct. 24, 1889. 



