EUROPEAN YEW 



straggle and sprawl. Closer observation, however, 

 shows a larger, stronger leaf of darker green, with its 

 under surface a decided yellow green where the hem- 

 lock is glaucous or a pale blue green. Then, too, the 

 Yew leaves break ranks much oftener than those of the 

 hemlock. 



In midsummer one may find, scattered and solitary, 

 sometimes at the end of a branch and sometimes at 

 the side, a beautiful translucent red berry, the size of a 

 currant or a trifle larger. When one examines this 

 red berry it is found to have a cylindrical opening 

 down to its very heart, an opening an eighth of an 

 inch across : and at its heart, surrounded by all this 

 red pulpy protection, is a dark brown bony seed. In 

 taste this berry is sweetish and rather insipid. 



This little bush can be made very useful in covering 

 moist ground which is well shaded. To plant it in 

 sunny locations is a mistake, it languishes if it does 

 not die. 



EUROPEAN YEW 



Tdxus baccata. 



The Yew-tree of the poet and the historian is Taxus 

 baccata, a plant of wide distribution, found throughout 

 Europe, save in the extreme north, and also native to 

 western Asia. It is not native in America, nor has the 

 type ever really flourished here, though hybrids are 

 abundant and fairly hardy. A few well grown Yew- 

 trees are reported in New York, Philadelphia, and 

 Baltimore where they were planted fully one hundred 

 years ago ; but the climate of New England is too 

 severe for them, and they will grow there only if well 



495 



