680 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Religious 

 s i gn 1 ficance 

 has always at- 

 tached to the 

 sombre yew, it 

 is a tree for 

 the burial 

 ground and 

 was planted 

 therein as far 

 back as Egj'pt 

 of the Ptole- 

 m i e s , from 

 whence its 

 funeral use 

 spread to 

 Greece and 

 Rome. Yew 



Photograph by Judge, London 



THE VINES OF OLD ENGLAND ARE PROFUSE AND GORGEOUS IN THEIR 



BRILLIANCY 



was carried at 



funeral p r o - 



cessions, was 



the wood used 



in the cinerary 



fires, and was 



placed in the graves before the body was committed ; this 



last ceremonial rite still exists in the Egyptian custom 



of spreading basil over tombs, in the Masonic service 



where acacia is cast into a sfrave, and in the almost uni- 



The little countryside chapels and churches seem to grow out of the gn*ound, so won- 

 derfully have the landscape designers handled the mass of verdure indigenous to the 

 British Isles. 



versal usage of 

 lining graves 

 with green 

 boughs to re- 

 lieve the harsh- 

 ness and chill 

 of the fresh 

 dug earth. 



The yew of 

 the present- 

 day landscape 

 architect is an 

 ornamental va- 

 riety, the Irish 

 yew, which dif- 

 fers from the 

 old type and 

 grows more 

 erect like the 

 h o m b a r d y 

 poplar, with a 

 slight bole and 

 scattering 

 leaves, instead 

 of two rows of leaves on each bough and a built-up bole 

 like the English yew. The Irish tree is used for new 

 planting, but when a rugged, striking specimen is needed, 

 the architect hunts out a reddish, thin-barked old bow- 





 1' 



Photograph by Judge, London 

 REMINISCENT OF THE BOLD AND GALLANT DAYS OF RUPERT OF HENTZAU 



But no matter how rugged the castle, how bold and bleak its sides, or how forbidding its moat, it cannot express more 

 strengrth and dignity than the famous oaks of England. Around Bodiam Castle, here pictured, are huge oak trees cen- 

 turies old, which frame the famous structure from every angle of approach. 



