270 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



nected with its exceptionally slow growth, and its tolerance 

 of shade. Yew-trees will grow in the shadow of deep woods, 

 though they do not actually require such dark and cool 

 situations, like many ferns. But the absence of sunlight in 

 these recesses prevents them from adding rapidly either to 

 their length or girth ; and the forces of vitality, being so 

 sparingly expended, may be prolonged for many centuries. 

 The age of none of the oldest yews in Britain is accurately 

 known, for they outrun all trustworthy records ; and it is im- 

 possible to tell the age of an old felled yew by counting the 

 rings in the wood, as additional rings are formed by the 

 enclosure of lateral shoots. The hollow trunk of many old 

 specimens is swollen and ribbed into curious shapes, as is the 

 case with many other old trees ; but the ribbed shell of some 

 old yews may not be the original trunk at all, but the amal- 

 gamated stems of young suckers which have sprouted from 

 the roots and the lower part of the trunk, and eventually en- 

 cased and concealed it. A thick growth of such suckers is 

 common in the case of comparatively young trees, though 

 some grow with a clean stem. The leaves, like those of 

 other evergreens, last for several years it is said for as many 

 as eight ; and their scanty downfall combines with the thick 

 shade to keep the earth beneath a clump of yews extra- 

 ordinarily naked and desolate. Even the scanty brambles 

 which straggle about the floor of dry leaves in a beech-wood 

 are absent from the black earth of a thick grove of yews. 

 Birds habitually avoid the darkest woods, partly, as it seems, 

 from mere distaste at their mouldering dankness, but partly 

 because they foster comparatively little insect life. Occasion- 

 ally a titmouse can be heard cracking one of the hard yew- 

 seeds, by taking it in its bill, and hammering it repeatedly 

 on a bough ; but often the stillness is complete. 



Yew-berries ripen in early autumn, when the hard green 



