82 FAMILIAR TREES 
Cambridgeshire fens and the submerged “ moor-logs ” 
at the mouth of the Thames, it is as perfectly pre- 
served as bog-oak, being of a rich brown tint; and 
under the microscope it exhibits in its woody fibres, 
as when alive, a unique combination of “bordered 
pits”-and spiral lines. Whilst, moreover, we may 
often see trees in situations that suggest their having 
been planted, no one can have visited the groves of 
Yew in Cranborne Chase, or the Hampshire Downs, 
or the basaltic hill of Arely, in Staffordshire, or have 
noticed its sporadic occurrence round Coulsdon in 
Surrey, or Tunbridge Wells, without being convinced 
of its truly indigenous character. It is curious to 
follow with the eye a line of sombre Yews winding 
along the downs in Surrey or Kent, marking the 
so-called Pilgrims’ Way—a road which leads not only 
to many a quaint, little sequestered Norman church, 
with perchance an exceptionally venerable Yew 
shadowing its silent graves, but also to many a far 
more ancient earthwork. 
The wood of the Yew, which, from being sus- 
ceptible of a high polish, used to be much valued in 
cabinet-work, is not, as is often thought, exceptionally 
slow in forming. The contrary opinion has been 
formed from a consideration of the slowly-increasing 
girth of those large trunks of aged Yews which are 
so disproportionately large, as compared with the 
extent of bough and leafage, that the formation upon 
them of the very thinnest growth of wood represents 
really a very fair total cubic amount. Unlike that 
of other Conifers, the wood of the Yew contains no 
resin. 
