THE YEW TREE, 405 
seedling plants standing about two inches apart, and the cover 
of soil on them should be about half an inch deep. The 
seeds, however, under any treatment, are apt to spring irregu- 
larly, and frequently only a part of the crop comes up the 
first season after sowing, and the remainder the following 
spring. As the young seedlings, on the appearance above 
ground, are apt to suffer from frost, a light cover of straw, fir, 
twigs, or some other herbage, should be placed as a protection 
on the surface of the beds. 
At the age of two or three years the seedling plants should 
be removed into nursery lines, and transplanted every third 
year, affording the plants sufficient space to keep them in full 
foliage till they are finally transplanted. September is the 
best month for planting, and moist weather should be pre- 
ferred; nursery ground partially shaded with standard trees, 
thus rendered unsuitable for plants in general, is adapted for 
the yew ; in such, its progress is fastest, and the colour of its 
foliage of the deepest green. The plant is remarkable for its 
slow growth. Plants five years old from seed, once trans- 
planted, do not average more than one foot in height, and at 
the age of ten years, with nursery treatment, they are seldom 
more than three feet high. 
The yew is sometimes affected by frost in the early part of 
the season, during the formation of its growth; but in winter it 
is quite hardy, resisting the severest weather without injury toa 
leaf. As it is in situations cool and moist, and to some extent 
darkened by the presence of taller trees, that it grows best, it 
is frequently employed in forming a cover for game among the 
stems of tall trees—for as a shelter and thicket in confined 
situations, it yields a foliage and growth more rich and com- 
pact than any other tree, not excepting the holly. From its 
naturally fibrous roots the yew may be transplanted of a large 
size. In nurseries, plants a yard in height are often placed at 
that distance asunder, and clipped into the form of a hedge, 
which, by occasional removals in September, form a mass of 
fibrous roots, adapting the plants for removal at any time. In 
the formation of pleasure ground, boundary, or screen-fences, 
