244 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



setshire, there is a yew-tree which exhibits a remark- 

 able rapidity of growth. The Rev. W. H. Box, 

 rector of this parish, informs me that an entry in 

 the Parish Register shows that it was planted in 

 1724. At the present time, therefore (February 

 1895), it i s probably about 175 years old, allowing 

 it to be about four years old when planted. 



This tree gives a diameter of 4 feet 3 inches, 

 which is more than double the ordinary rate of 

 growth. 



The Ribbesford yew, near Bewdley, 'grows out 

 of a pollard oak, the circumference of the trunk of 

 which at the ground is 17 feet, and its height 

 20 feet.' 1 



Mrs. Wakeman- Newport sends me the following- 

 account of it from a local publication : 



' A grand natural curiosity on the glebe land of 

 Ribbesford. A large yew-tree grew out of the 

 trunk of an oak ; the oak was 1 5 feet in circum- 

 ference, the yew is 7 feet in circumference and 

 8 feet high in the trunk, and is still standing.' 



' The present trunk of the yew was formerly the 

 roots which grew in the oak, and still retains the 

 appearance of the roots twisted together. The oak 

 must be probably a thousand years old or upwards, 

 as it was apparently an old pollard oak when the 

 yew berry was dropped into it, and the yew, which 

 is a tree of very slow growth in the best situations, 



1 Loudon, Arboretum, etc., 1836. 



