THE YEW. 



311 



the base ; tlie branches are in themselves large 

 trees, and shade the ground to a great extent. 

 It must be of incalculable antiquity, and it is not 

 yet in a state of much decay, though it has per- 

 haps for centuries attained its maturity. Other 

 Yew-trees, in the same place, which were planted, 

 as the parish register records, in the year 1727, 

 are, on an average, somewhat more than four feet 

 in girth."* 



" At Crom Castle, the seat of the Earl of Erne, 

 in the county of Fermanagh, Ireland, in the 

 garden of the old castle, which was burnt down 



YEW-TREE AT CROM. 



about a century ago, stands the most celebrated 

 Yew-tree in Ireland. I have not been able to 

 arrive at anything like certainty as to its age. 

 Old men of eighty years remember it in their 

 boyhood as the old Yew-tree of Crom. The ap- 

 pearance of the tree is that of an enormous green 

 mushroom. The stem rises from a small mound, 

 and is not above eight feet in height, and about 

 three feet in diameter. The branches spread in 

 great numbers horizontally from the trunk, and 

 are supported on a number of wooden pillars, 

 with gravel walks between them. These branches 



" Gardeners' Chronicle." 



