518 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
Owing to its extreme slowness of growth, its 
wood, as might naturally be expected, is of con- 
siderable value. It is compact, yet elastic, flexible, 
and extremely hard, having, moreover, a singu- 
larly close grain. Its colour is either a deep 
brown or an orange red. Its slowness of growth 
causes it to produce very thin annual layers of 
wood, and it is this circumstance which occasions 
the fineness and compactness of grain and the 
hardness of the timber. In a piece of Yew no 
