364 TAXACE.E. 



larly affecting rocky and mountainous wooded districts. 

 It is also found in similar situations in Ireland, advancing 

 to as high a range as twelve hundred feet. It seems to 

 prefer a northerly or cool aspect, and grows freely under 

 the shade of many deciduous trees. The soil most con- 

 genial to its growth is that of a stiff calcareous nature, 

 and where it is kept pretty moist hy the percolation of 

 water or the shade of surrounding trees and herbage. It 

 is not, however, a tree of much power of occupancy, 

 being seldom found growing in large masses together, but 

 usually solitary or intermingled with other trees. It is 

 also indigenous to the greater part of continental Europe, 

 and to parts of eastern and western Asia, and should 

 the T. Canadensis be only a variety of T. baccata, as sup- 

 posed by Loudon, in that case its distribution extends 

 to the North American continent. Like most trees of 

 slow growth, tardy, at least, when compared with the 

 rapid advance of many of our deciduous species, as well 

 as several of the Coniferee, the Yew is long in attaining 

 maturity, and many centuries frequently elapse before it 

 shows any symptoms of decay, a fact we learn from the 

 records of celebrated trees now extinct, as well as from 

 others still in existence, and whose history can be traced 

 for upwards of one thousand years. 



In bygone times, when the Yew tree furnished that 

 formidable weapon the long bow, so destructive in the 

 powerful and skilful grasp of the English archer, and 

 to the decisive effects of which we are said in a great 

 measure to have been indebted for some of our proudest 

 and most momentous victories, witness the fields of Cressy, 

 Poictiers, Agincourt, &c, it was held in high and de- 

 served esteem, and every care was taken to ensure its 

 preservation and foster its growth ; statutes having been 



