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The Museum Gazette 



ON HOLLOW YEW TREES. 



An intelligent Reviewer of our Gazette in the Morning Post 

 adverts to our explanation of Hollow Oak trees (that they are 

 caused by lightning), and remarks that it is hardly applicable 

 to hollow Yews. There is no doubt that most very large yews 

 are hollow, and there are but very few records of yews having 

 been struck by lightning. Yews are, however, very peculiar 

 in their mode of growth. The hollows which they enclose are 

 probably not caused in the first instance by decay of central 

 wood, but are to be regarded rather as enclosed cavities. A 

 Yew tree bole, if of large size, has usually been formed by 

 the coalescence, side by side, of several stems. In this pro- 

 cess of coalescence there always remains in the middle a 

 vertical chamber which is not obliterated, and in which leaves, 

 water and rubbish may accumulate. Such contents may in 

 the end cause rotting of the bark and wood lining the chimney 

 and thus gradually enlarge it. It is not suggested that this 

 mode of growth is invariable, but it is certainly common, and 

 probably as much so as are hollow yews. In other cases it 

 may be that the breakage of a large bough may admit 

 moisture and thus permit of decay. Our contention is that 

 so long as the bark and outer wood of a hard-wood tree, 

 whether oak or other, remains sound, its middle will not decay. 



We have examined a great many Yew trees of various 

 ages. All the old ones are hollow, and all have the central 

 chimney. The opening of the chimney is sometimes small, 

 and in one instance it was so blocked with rubbish that it 

 almost escaped discovery. In all there are appearances sug- 

 gestive of several stems having coalesced. This tendency, 

 on the part of the Yew, has been noticed by several writers. 

 The separate stems spring from the same stole, they grow 

 straight and so stiff and unyielding that they are forced into 

 side-by-side contact and thus grow into each other. Thus 

 the Yew bole should be regarded as a composite trunk, 

 scarcely ever, much after early youth, consisting of a single 



