yio 



THE YEW. 



drawn parallel to the base. The comparison takes in the foliage-mass 

 of the tree only : below the base of the triangle and at right angles 

 to it is the trunk, making up a quarter or less of the whole height. 

 The outline so formed is slightly broken by the spires of numerous 

 branchlets. The bole of an old Yew is enormous, sometimes as 

 much as fifty feet in circumference, and is made up of a number of 

 stems fused together and partly hidden by adventitious twigs. These 

 stems separate and diverge as boughs a few feet above the ground. 

 The lower ones soon become horizontal or drooping, with their tips 

 curving upwards. Most of the branches or shoots, though not all, 

 lie horizontally in one plane. The bole is covered with a thin 

 scaly purple-red bark. 



The growth of the tree is best understood if a shoot be 

 examined. On shoots of the previous year the buds are grouped 

 near the tip, with here and there a single one in the axils of the 

 leaves. At its extremity such a shoot usually bears three buds, and 

 the resulting branchlets form a three-pronged fork, the lateral 

 branchlets, or outer prongs of the fork being set at an angle of 

 45 , with the terminal shoot or central prong ; sometimes the bud 

 in the centre of the terminal group is abortive and we have a Y 

 instead of the fork. Owing to the slow growth of the tree these 

 branchlets are very short and set close together, and the leaves, 

 which cover them densely, are also close-set. The parent branches 

 also carry leaves, and a branch of eight or even ten years' growth 

 is not leafless. 



The roots which interlace above the ground, as well as the 

 wispy branchlets which straggle from the bole and the stems of 

 which it is built up, often take forms of much beauty. The colouring 

 of the branchlets is yellower in tone than that of the larger limbs. 



