THE YEW. 



GENERAL REMARKS.— The Age of Trees. 



F all our long-lived trees the Yew attains to the most 

 patriarchal age. The Yews of Fountains Abbey, 



Yorkshire, with their tale of 1,200 years, are still only 

 in middle life compared to the Yew of Fortingale in 

 Perthshire, with its 2,500 years, or to the Brayburn Yew, which 

 according to De Candolle is 3,000 years old. The same authority 

 estimates the age-limit of our different trees as follows. To the 

 Larch he gives 570 years, to the Plane, 750, to the Lime, 1,100, 

 to the Oak, 1,500 ; but to the Yew from 4,000 to 6,000 years of 

 life. To turn from these abnormal instances to the ordinary limits 

 which are reached by a still vigorous tree, John Nisbet in " British 

 Forest Trees" gives the following table : Seldom over 100 years : 

 Birch, Alder, Willow, Poplar. About 200 years : Ash, Maple, 

 Sycamore, Spruce, Larch, Scots Pine, Hornbeam. 300 to 400 years : 

 English Elm, Beech. 500 years : Yew, Oak, Lime, Scotch Elm, 

 Chestnut. The age of a Yew, it is stated, may be roughly gauged 

 by measuring the bole at a height of about two feet from the ground 

 and allowing for each foot of the diameter about fifty-six years of 

 growth. 



RAMIFICATION. 



In its must usual form the Yew is a dense massive tree from 

 20 to 30 feet in height and of greater breadth, with its lower 

 branches extending furthest. Its proportions somewhat resemble those 

 ol ;i hawthorn hush, and might be roughly compared to an equila- 

 teral triangle, of which one third, the apex, is cut oil by a line 



