GEI!TUS TAXUS. 117 



well furnished with dark green leaves arranged in two lateral 

 double rows. The leaves vary in length, but are usually about 

 I inch, with a prominent midrib, and tapering to an acute 

 point. Fruit bright scarlet, oval or rounded in shape, and en- 

 closing partially a small brownish nut. Whether when 

 covered with the pollen-bearing receptacles in spring or the 

 bright ruddy berries in winter, the tree is highly attractive and 

 ornamental. The following are the most distinct varieties. 



T. baccata adpressa. One of the most distinct of 

 the many varieties, the broad and short leaves rendering re- 

 cognition by no means difficult. It is of spreading growth, 

 with short, sub-horizontal branches, and very dark green 

 leaves, arranged in double rows, and inclined upwards and 

 forwards. Each leaf is about ^ an inch long, and obtusely 

 pointed, while the fruit is vermilion red, the cup usually only 

 half covering the ovoid seed. By many authors this has been 

 described as a species, but, although very distinct both in 

 leaves and fruit, yet the fact of certain specimens that have 

 come under my own notice containing both branches of the 

 species and T. b. adpressa^ clearly proves the parentage. 



In reply to a letter of mine, the late Mr. F. Arthur Dickson, 

 of the Chester Nurseries, writes as follows regarding the 

 present shrub : " This yew was discovered by my father, the 

 late Mr. Francis Dickson, somewhere about 1838. It was 

 growing in a bed of seedlings of the common English yew. 

 It is therefore undoubtedly a seedling sport. Being of slow 

 growth, it was necessarily slow of propagation, and it took 

 many years to get up a stock upon the grounds of the then 

 firm of F. & J. Dickson, of which my father was the head. 

 I well remember the value my father set by this plant, and 

 his chagrin and vexation when, on his return home after a few 

 days' absence, he learned that a representative of the late firm 

 of Knight & Perry, nurserymen, Chelsea, had, in looking 

 over the nurseries, purchased and taken away with him some 

 half-dozen good-sized plants, as the result of negotiation with 

 an inexperienced salesman, who was presumably ignorant of 

 the value of the plants. This enabled the Chelsea firm to 



