AUGUST 20 



1898. 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



545 



TH 



FORTI 



YEW 



^ %sr at t the Perthshire parish which is as large as a German Duchy, is one 

 K^tS^totrictito Scotland, alike to the naturalist the botanist 

 ftlSSSlM lover of fine scenery. In what correspond^ space of 

 tht :T2s a correspondent of the Dundee Advertiser, will you find as 

 country, asks a v Druidical remains compete for notice with 



^oJ^^S^ and where a Roman camp stands as an outpost to a 

 ^nTSSonvmtoits of unknown antiquity? Where too, such variety of 



Ivfmm stern Loch Rannoch and Schiehallion, white as a " maidens 

 brea " in the north, to the smiling shores of Lock Tay in the south, from the 



een and fertile haugh which lies before Fortingall village, encompassed by the 

 T ^n like a silver bow, to the long and crooked and narrow glen which winds 

 tawecn high hills for thirty miles, which opens at the picturesque Pass of 

 Gler-Lyon and ends in Argyllshire ? One hardly knows which phase of interest to 

 note first— the beautiful or the ancient, the curious or the merely pleasing. But 

 oerhaps the antiquarian relics of the place are the most valuable, and so we begin 



-h the oldest memorial of the past in the parish— the venerable yew, which has 

 the credit of being, if not the oldest tree in Europe, yet one of the patriarchs of 

 European vegetation. 



Says Sir Robert Christison in the inquiry which he devotes to determine the 

 age of this venerable tree : " De Candolle, with the particulars at his command 

 in 1831, estimates its age at 2,500 or 2,600 years in 1770 ; and alluding to it and 

 a few other yews in England — among which, however, he mentioned only one 

 vying with it in antiquity, he adds—* I venture to indicate these trees to botanists 

 and foresters that they may authenticate them, and establish, if possible, their law 

 of increment, for it is probable that they are 



The Veterans of European Vegetation/" 



The ether trees mentioned by the French naturalist have all succumbed to 

 Vandalism or natural decay. The Fortingall Yew alone, thanks perhaps to its 

 isolated position ramparted by the Grampians, survives to tell to a wondering 

 Twentieth century the story of its long descent What that story is, however, is 

 largely conjectural. One wishes for the nonce that the u tongues in trees M which 

 the Duke speaks about were a reality, for half an hour's "crack" with the 

 Fortingall Yew would be worth all the cogitations of all the learned societies put 

 together I think it is in one of Kipling's stories that there is a man who is a 

 mere commonplace City clerk, but who has a vision of his former incarnations, 

 who has rowed in a Roman galley on the Mediterranean, and so on, and who, 

 under certain conditions, has a curious blurred consciousness of the past. Could 

 we lay our ear to the vocal trunk of this old tree what might we not hear ? The 

 murmur of the primeval forest and the wood cries of innumerable wild things ; the 

 ensh of the rocky barrier rent by some wild convulsion of Nature, which set free 

 ie imprisoned waters of the lake, which up to that time had filled the valley of 

 Wen-Lyon ; the sound of the Druids' hymn and the shrieks of the victims as they 

 Wed l>eneath the knife to fill the stony cups of those ancient altars with a red 

 Itation; the ciies of Pictish warriors ere ever there were Celts in the land ; the 

 Heady tramp of Roman legions coming to encamp on the " heath-field " close by, 

 where yet their trench and mound stand for a memorial of them ; 



War 



Mth'y descended from their castles to fight, to plunder, and to ravage ; the blithe 

 wuis or Scotland s monarchs and their merry men as they went to the hunting ; 

 m ^view-hallo 0 that set the bloodhounds on the track of Wallace and Bruce ; the 



tK^L°^ U .l . ?, n the land . less and proscribed Gregarach— these are some of 



remains silent, 



, «. WWJ civ. is. lor thy stubborn 



seriousness, however, the yew is the oldest object, next to 



>'l Razing 

 udihood. 



the ev^rlact.'n™ u-ii li_ , : "~"*"*"f jv-" xo Luc uiucsl ouieci, nexi 10 



the tXJ , t f hemselv f s ' that the e X e meets at Fortingall. It was probably 



toy For tM e a* 5 W ° rship in the Valle y> and itself the altar and the 

 the Lorenl v !' ? u C - a " kn . OW ' worsh trees, and though the oak 

 , ' "*fm<>f tbeh devotion it is perfectly readable to surest that 



SrtTil datellt* a K POrt, ° n °/u their WOfshi P to this ^mortelle 5 of slow 



SdSJSteSft^ he tree 15 associated from time immemorial 



" Old yew, which graspest at the stones 

 That name the under-lying dead, 

 Thy fibres met the dreamless head, 

 Thy roots are wrapped about the bones." 



** Sead^me^h?^ 22 the S T' ival ° f the fee,in g of an age, and 



h P«l*ed gloo m le t Un K nCar the f Cr ^ d y £W ' umil at l«gth the yew with 

 of cJnsiSSaS at f soc '* ted with the departed ? The thought is 

 Forbngal I Vew b v an aim,?™ £ S ° mC P eo P Ie r have sought to account for the 

 J> feted in gLveva a! for ,r ™ c,ent , A u Ct - of Parliament that ordered yews 



* *«* an attemntk ^J?L ^ 2** °! l heir tou § h wood ** making bows. 

 E* a sturdy™? C itn Q ? fdCe ° f l v e 8 , reat a8e of tree. Why, the 



* ^Pired •O^rJSiJJSS? 0 " 1 ^ ^J'^hi, temple or Isaiah singing 



or Daniel reading on the wall the doom of Babylon. Why, 



it u a th ThC 7th Centur y Church 



i^theancienTorJ COm P ared . l ? the c °mitless winters of the hoary 

 ****** ^i n S 8W ?2*? T Cta«b, a t the east 



" was fifty s x feet in e ? nant f ,n h,s tour mentions having seen it in 

 i ^cu. io . hunli > . ^ J«t n circumference. Village Vandalism, however, 



Silage boys S J ed mS&T*' ^ itS prance. At one 



thoughts 7 back in an , K T * ne at Us rools - a custom which 

 5^gcrsc ut down theTranrh. V" '^i 'V^ Druids and their rites, and 

 -:fe ittf ^ irSfefl U r ed cups and boxes and 



kT^ole gi^ had not a wan £ IT' th f er « wou ?.have been nothing left of 



w 'on of the c or ing S* 'T? * in the end of last century 

 *Qll£^*rt£™J[?hSL? K eS * t ?~* g en tleman, it may be 

 Jft^'l. who took such a in T , Pa " Sh mm ! Ster of Fortingall, the Rev. 

 lirtT PiCrCCd W two 'fi° ktly . m l Cr f l l m the tree. This still stand* 



wde i 



roots of the present tree ; but it seems that the yew does not shoot up in this 

 way, so the young tree— a mere infant of eighty years old or thereabouts— is most 

 likely a seedling from its soil. What a multitude of thoughts arise in the imagi- 

 native visitor as he looks at this ancient yew ! How the mutability of human life 

 is borne in upon him, the permanence of nature, the transitoriness of man ! whose 



"... deepest lays are dumb 

 Before the mouldering of a yew." 



The yew has always suggested such images to the poet. It seems a sylvan growth 

 which belongs less to the upper world of light and sunshine than to the lower 

 shades. 



The Clove trade of Zanzibar. 



The most important export trade of Zanzibar, from an economical point of view, 

 is that of Cloves {Caryophyllus aromaticus), for upon it the revenues of the Sultanate 

 chiefly depend. 



The figures which appear in the following table, prepared by Mr. Consul Cave, 

 represent the actual quantities of cloves brought into the town of Zanzibar from 

 the u shambas " or plantations of this and Pemba Islands during the last eight 

 years. The actual clove season, that is, the period during which the produce of 

 the trees ripens and is picked, dried, and brought to market, extends from Sep- 

 tember to March, and is at its height in January, but for the purposes of this 

 report the year is reckoned in the usual way from January I to December 31. 

 I frasila=35 lbs. 



Quantity. 



Year. 



Zanzibar. 



Pemba. 



Total. 





Frasilas. 



Frasilas. 



Frasilas. 



1890 



... 124,929 



384,933 



509,862 



1891 



... 69,388 ... 



324,252 



... 393.640 



1892 



121,398 



236,21 1 



..• 357,609 



1893 



108,090 



259,367 



... 367,457 



1894 



... ... 138,691 ... 



372,999 



511,690 



1895 



146,397 



391,460 



... 537,857 



1896 



Ii9»79i 



237,090 



356,881 



1897 



... 90,676 



240,954 



331,630 



From this table it will be seen that the yield of cloves during 1897 was less 

 by 883,785 lbs. than in the year immediately preceding, and was, in fact, the 

 lowest recorded throughout the series. The reason for this is twofold. It was due, 

 in the first place, to the unusually dry weather which prevailed during the beginning 

 of the clove season of 1897 98, the total rainfall being only 18*51 inches as compared 

 with a previous five years' average of 24*32 inches, a difference which is quite 

 sufficient to account for a considerable reduction in the yield, and, in the second 

 place, to the important and difficult question of labour. 



The clove-tree is one which requires a good deal of care and attention, and 

 which well repays the labour bestowed upon it ; it is of course important that the 

 roots should be kept clear of weeds and tangled undergrowth which in this more 

 than in other climates so rapidly grow and spread amongst them, but it is in the 

 picking season especially that the scarcity of labour is felt. Experiments have 

 shown that the buds should be picked when the calyx tubes or stems are of a pink 

 colour ; if they are left until the stems become red the latter will be brittle, and 

 the flowers apt to open during the process of drying, with the result that 

 many of the heads, which are composed of the imbricated petals, will drop off and 

 the sample deteriorate in value. If picked too green, on the other hand, the dried 

 cloves will be shrivelled. The buds grow on the trees in bunches, and in each 

 bunch there may be buds in various stages of ripeness ; to obtain a good and 

 uniform sample the trees should be carefully watched, and the buds picked as each 

 reaches the certain condition in which experience has shown that it can best be 

 submitted to the subsequent process of drying. To properly carry out this 

 method however, would require a far larger number of labourers than either the 

 Arab landower is able to employ or the country to supply, indeed, the reduction 

 of the number of slaves by natural causes, gradual at first but more rapid as time 

 goes on and the effectual suppression of all the methods by which a fresh supply 

 used in former times to be obtained, has had such a serious result for the clove- 

 planter that he net only finds it impossible to attempt to carry out any of the 

 methods by which he is now well aware that his crop may be improved and his 

 income increased, but is often only too glad if, by mutual arrangement with his 

 neighbours or by some other means, he can engage a sufficient number of hands 



Kr T„ e *5i Sb" « publbhed fa* y=ar aboli.hing .h< kga, of 



service under the immediate supervision o 



the hands 01 me «™, ~» ^ - aItogether a ma tterfor regret, or whether 

 m previous ,M £ home> it ^ ould not rather tend to improve the 



by reducing the stock °f^es £ as Us duc(ion deC rea ed, and so act as an 



price of the ^SwSJEed it to pioduce an article of a higher commer- 

 incentive to those who sun c""'» u„u u„t it •« tw.i 



incentive to tnose wuu -.. ^ different opinions may be held, but it is not 

 cial value, is a q^» "JJ more than account t0 \ he extent to which this 

 h P a: P alr:fdy bSdl^tS reduction in the quantities which have been put on 



the home markets ; during ^^^^ year remaine d fairly steady at 

 Prices during the first three Q y ^ ^ ^ 



I dol. 94 c for Zanzibar and qo / commencement of the 



fi en «al appearan 



gh 



** «f inn 



No branding summer suns avail 

 0 touch its thousand years of gloom " 



for 2^**^J^ A 2 dol. 14c. and 2. dol. V respectively and 



• V - rag ^ K. fh Jeven Sir prices would have been offered if there had not 

 it is probable that even ^higje ? ^ ^ Bq fe cQn , 



. ^ enaVe ^f t KSue Thi price which the Zanzibar clove commands in the 



which allow more sequence of the plague i K ^ ^ Qf fte pe ^ Amboyna vari eties, 



sing apparent in its home markets ^J^^ufficient attention is not paid to the important 



chiefly, it is supposed becawes v ^ ^ 



process of drying, and the.cloves^ ^ £ Expe H ments whi ch 



carried on in this respect tend to show that, with 



have been and are still being 



• J 2 ^.arat, ir ' £ tr , unk ls *** » mere hallow shell, 

 ••^Sr growing ouS?, *% ma £ °l l fr ' Jrn n ' There is another yew 



*" Was fcr some SiTii^"^^ WaU in a line with the old 



"me supposed to have sprung from the spreading 



can 



world, and it is bapeam , succe ssful, the price which he will be able to 



methods which are^ fo«*to ^ ultimately compensate him for the number of 

 ?^wSh fa r^S«S Jed t0 ' "--llowlng to pass out of cultivation. 



