126 LONDON TREES 



both drought and damp, while it will survive in the 

 poorest of soil and is little subject to either disease 

 or insect attack. Yew timber is of excellent quality, 

 and the country saying that a post of Yew will out- 

 live a post of iron is well known. 



It is readily propagated from seed, which is 

 usually produced abundantly wherever the tree will 

 thrive. The berries when collected in autumn should 

 be either mixed with fine sand or washed in water 

 to remove the glutinous outer covering. Sowing may 

 take place in early spring. The Yew is remarkable 

 for its slow growth, five-year-old plants that have 

 been cultivated in the most favourable surroundings 

 rarely averaging more than a foot in height, and at 

 the age of ten years nursery-grown plants are no more 

 than a yard high. 



T 



Zelkowa 



(Zelkova acuminatd) 



WO at least of the three known species of 

 Zelkowa are not only highly ornamental trees 

 but suitable for cultivation in London, where, as in 

 the central and Battersea Parks, well developed 

 specimens are to be found. There are some noble 

 trees of the Caucasian Zelkowa (Z. crenata and Z. 

 acuminatd) at Kew and Syon House, the former being 

 about 70 feet in height, with a trunk circumference 

 of 10 feet. The Caucasian Zelkowa, which was in- 

 troduced in 1870, is a handsome, large-growing tree, 

 somewhat after the style of the Elm, with oblong, 

 deeply crenated leaves and small, inconspicuous flowers. 

 In the Japanese Zelkowa, which was introduced in 



