THE YEW. 713 



LEAVES. 



The leaves, which are flat and unbroken in outline, measure 

 about three-quarters of an inch in length, and an eighth of an inch 

 in breadth ; the breadth is nearly the same throughout, except that 

 the tip and face are bevelled. The texture of the blade is leathery : 

 the upper surface is polished, and its colour a very dark green : the 

 under-side is paler and the green more intense, with a tinge of blue. 

 Usually the leaves are curved so that the under-side forms a 

 concave line, and a very short curved stalk supports them. The tip 

 of the leaf ends in a sharp hard point, and the central mid-rib 

 projects noticeably on the underside. Between the points from 

 which the leaves spring is a raised form resembling a leaf glued to 

 the twig : its colour is usually green like the leaf, but on the 

 older branches and on the upper side of the branchlets it is 

 coloured like the wood which bears it.- 



Generally speaking the habit of the leaves is to lie in one 

 plane, in two ranks, one on either side ot the twig, while usually 

 the twigs lie in the same horizontal plane with the leaves. When 

 the twig is upright, the leaves sometimes radiate from it, star- 

 fashion, on all sides (and this habit of growth is found occasionally 

 on horizontal twigs also). These two contrasting arrangements ot 

 foliage — the flat fern-like layer and the star-like radiation from the 

 twig — are rendered possible by the position the leaf stalks occupy. 

 They arc not inserted in two rows along the twig* as the flat 

 layers of foliage would lead one to suppose, but spring from it at 

 various points, and so careful is the adherence to the general plan 

 >>1 flat layers of foliage on the horizontal shoots, that leaves, which 



This 1 sometimes the case, but SO far as I have been able to observe, it is exceptional. 



