258 TAXACE 
It has flowers and fruit of shape and: make so 
distinctive that the various species are almost 
regarded as monotypic. Its ovuliferous flower starts 
life as a cone and ends as a seed-nut in a succu- 
lent aril, open at the top, but its bright-red so- 
called berries are too well known to need further 
description. 
Other countries besides England and Ireland _ lay 
claim to a proprietary interest in their own particular 
formof Yew. China, Japan, Canada, Mexico,.Florida, 
and Pacific Coast regions have their own peculiar 
name attached to their own particular specimens. 
They differ, maybe, in mere matters of detail, but so 
slightly that they have been for the most part reckoned 
by the botanical world as members of one family, 
hailing from a different. geographical habitat. If 
they cannot be looked upon as fraternal, in the same 
sense as Wordsworth’s group of Borrowdale Yews, 
at all events they can all be rightly considered as 
cousins not very distantly removed. 
From a scenic point of view the Yew has won its 
admirers and numbered up its detractors. 
Though the Yew may be said to represent Erebus 
(darkness) rather than his more radiant offspring, 
"ther (light), and Hemera (day), yet scattered about 
as dark, motionless specks upon the grey, green, 
silent, and bare expanses of such places as, for instance, 
say the Hampshire Downs, they are the making to 
many of grand scenic effect. Before any one makes 
any final pronouncement on the subject, we think 
they ought to make an expedition by boat down the 
River Wye, from Ross to Chepstow, in early summer, 
when the dark-clad Yews stand out in contrast to 
the light green colouring of their deciduous sur- 
roundings, bursting into spring attire on the well- 
wooded hill-sides. We wish teo—but it is too late 
in the day for that—that we could have asked old 
