COMMON YEW. 381 



growing and flourishing state, which bid fair, in process 

 of time, to rival the giants of their race. Among these 

 we shall only mention a Yew in the grounds of J. M. F. 

 Doveston, at Westfalton, near Shrewsbury, which, from 

 its rapid growth and pendulous habit, promises to be 

 a variety well-deserving of extended cultivation ; added 

 to which it has the uncommon property of being mon- 

 oecious, one of its branches producing exuberant crops of 

 berries, while all the rest are covered with male flowers. 

 This tree, scarcely seventy years old, at five feet from 

 the ground, is already upwards of five feet in girth. At 

 Twizell, about eighteen years planted, it is seventeen feet 

 high, diameter of the trunk seven inches. 



In selecting Yew plants, particularly where timber is 

 the object in view, attention should be given to the habit 

 and mode of growth of the young individuals, and those 

 should be preferred which show a strong and upright 

 tendency, with broad healthy- looking leaves ; for we find 

 from experience that out of a bed of seedlings there are 

 generally several which, instead of advancing upwards, or 

 throwing their main growth into the leading stem, seem 

 to expend their strength upon the elongation of the lateral 

 branches ; at Twizell, a Yew of this description, planted 

 upon the lawn, though only ten feet high, covers with 

 its side branches an area of a diameter of twenty-four feet. 

 The Yew, with the exception of its varieties, is best 

 propagated from seeds, and, as the berries are produced 

 in great abundance by the female plants, there is seldom 

 any difficulty in procuring an adequate supply, provided 

 the trees are protected from the depredations of the thrush 

 tribe during the period of the colouring or ripening of 

 the fruit. After being gathered, they may either be sown 

 immediately in their pulp, or be kept in sand during the 



