42 BULLETIN 680, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



distinguish and to give this northwestern tree its present technical 

 name, Taxus brevifolia, which was published in 1849. 60 



DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 



The western yew is a small tree from 20 to 30 feet in height and 

 from 6 to 12 inches in diameter, occasionally attaining a height of 

 from 40 to 75 feet and a diameter of from 18 to 30 inches. The 

 largest trees occur in the Pacific slope region. As found in the 

 Rocky Mountain region, western yew rarely equals 25 feet in height, 

 and frequently it is only a shrub. The trunks are straight and 

 conical, but conspicuously ridged and fluted as if by an infolding of 

 the surface. Diameter growth is often very eccentric (larger on 

 one side of the pith than on the other). Except in the case of large 

 old trees, the crown has an open conical form and extends nearly 

 or quite to the ground, the slender branches standing out straight 

 and often drooping somewhat, while from their sides and extremities 

 very slender branchlets hang down, giving the tree a weeping appear- 

 ance. This latter habit is strongly marked in trees growing partly 

 or wholly in the open, because here the densely leafy branchlets are 

 very much more numerous than on trees growing in deep shade. 

 The crowns of old trees are usually rounded and often unsymmetrical. 



The purplish bark is conspicuously thin, rarely over one-fourth 

 of an inch thick, and composed of thin, paperlike, easily detached 

 scales, beneath which the newer unexposed bark is a clear rose-red 

 or purple-red. 



The deep yellow-green leaves (PL XIII), from one-half to three 

 fourths of an inch long, are soft to the touch, and much paler on their 

 under sides than on the upper; their yellowish slender stems are 

 about one-sixteenth of an inch long. Leaves produced each year 

 remain on the trees in a green and functional condition for about five 

 years; occasionally, a few green leaves from 6 to 9 years old are found 

 here and there on branches. 



The bright coral-red fruit (PL XIII, a) is ripe in September and 

 begins to fall during October. Birds often eat the fruit for its sweetish 

 mucillaginous covering, but the hard-shelled seeds are unaffected by 

 digestion. The attractiveness of the fruit to birds serves, therefore, 

 as an important means of disseminating the seed, which otherwise 

 would not be carried far from the parent trees. The short, flat. 



so According to Veitch (Man. of Coniferse, ed. 1, p. 305. 1881) Taxus brevifolia was first introduced into 

 cultivation in European gardens in 1854 by Veitch & Sons through their collector, William Lobb. But 

 in the "New and Greatly Enlarged Edition" of Veitch's Manual of Coniferae (p. 143, 1900) the statement 

 is made that Taxus brevifolia was introduced into British gardens in 1854 by William Murray. To what 

 extent this yew has been planted in European gardens and how well it has succeeded there appears to be 

 imperfectly known. Veitch (1. c.) says the tree is still exceedingly rare in British gardens. Elwes and 

 Henry (The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, 1, 108, 1906) state that they know of no specimens of large 

 size in England. 



