Occurrence of Valuta Lumber li on the Suffolk Coast. 35 



average. There is also a great inequality in the width of 

 some zones over others on the same side of the tree ; and those 

 on the south are sometimes narrower than on the north : the 

 former inequality is generally thought to be owing to a favour- 

 able or unfavourable season ; but my own observations tend 

 to discountenance such an opinion. I have several times 

 fixed on a given ring, say the fifth, tenth, or twentieth, count- 

 ing inwards from the one in contact with the inner bark ; and, 

 on comparing it with that of the same year's growth in sections 

 from other trees, have found considerable discrepancies. The 

 alburnum also passes very unequally into the duramen, or 

 heart-wood ; different portions of the same or of many con- 

 tiguous rings being often found in each of these states. 



My experiments tend to show that, while De Candolle's 

 average makes old yews to be younger than they are, it gives 

 too great an age to those of more recent growth. For the 

 latter, I think, we should not allow less than 2 lines of their 

 diameter for annual increase, where the trunk has a less cir- 

 cumference than 6 ft.; and even 3 lines or more, if the tree 

 is in a warm situation and a moist luxuriant soil. 



I have thought it desirable, at the risk of being tedious, to 

 point out the several sources of error which attend the exa- 

 mination of the yew, that others may avoid them ; though I 

 strongly fear that no standard, either for old or young trees of 

 this species, will ever be found generally applicable, where the 

 nearest approach to truth is required. Actual sections must be 

 resorted to, before we can place any confidence in the result.* 



(To be continued.} 



Akt. VIII. Notice of the Occurrence of Valuta Lambert i on the 

 Siiffblk Coast ; with Observations upon its Claim to rank with 

 existing Species. By Edward Charlesworth, F.G.S. 



It is in the study of fossil organisms, and in the cautious 

 observance of the conditions under which they are presented 



* In taking the circumference of any old trees, and especially of the yew, 

 whose trunk is often concealed by innumerable little shoots, and is subject 

 to excrescences and inequalities, care should be taken to select that portion 

 which has a medium thickness, and to pass the tape close to the bark ; other- 

 wise very erroneous results will be obtained. I had read somewhere that 

 a yew in Llanfoist churchyard, Monmouthshire, had been measured by the 

 writer, and was 33ft. in circumference; I was therefore disappointed to 

 find that this measurement must have included a great arm or bough that 

 proceeds from the very base of the trunk on the south side, and therefore 

 formed no part of it. Even with this bough, the circumference, at 3 ft. 

 high, is only 27 ft. 6 in. ; without it, the circumference of the real trunk, at 

 the same height, is only 21 ft. ii in. 



d 2 



