RAISING YEWS FROM SEED AT WELLESLEY 
T. D. HATFIELD 
Study of Relative Hardiness of European and Asiatic Types 
Editor’s note: The collection of Evergreens on the Hunnewell estate at IVellesley near Boston was begun about 1843, and 
has now been established long enough to have demonstrated certain facts as to the endurance and behavior of many trees. The late 
Mr. H . H . Hunnewell took a great interest in planting new introductions as they came available and the collections ( continued by the 
family) now afford an unparalleled opportunity for a knowledge of the behavior of many species in the climate of Northeastern America. 
Mr. Hatfield, who has had charge of the gardens for many years, renders a real service in recording his observations and in this way 
making available some facts about the plants that will help planters to avoid loss by the selection of material unsuited to their conditions. 
B HEN I came to the Hunnewell estate at Wellesley, 
Mass., twenty years ago, all the Yews growing there 
were either imported plants of the European Yew or 
stock from them raised in this country. The Japanese 
Yew (Taxus cuspidata), now so popular, and its compact-growing 
variety, known in the nurseries as brevifolia, have been growing 
here since about 1870. They were brought to this country by 
Dr. George R. Hall, of Warren, R. I., about 1862, and later 
distributed from the Parsons Nursery, Flushing, Long Island. 
Some of the first plants came to the Hunnewell estate and 
some of the finest specimens now in existence are here. 
Of the original English Yew (Taxus baccata) very few plants 
are left. They have never thrived, and everywhere the Jap- 
anese varieties excel them. They would go along for a few years, 
pick up and make shapely plants, then an unusually severe 
winter would burn the south side of every one and otherwise 
disfigure it for a year or two. This has kept on happening and, 
though once in a while a plant more favorably situated than the 
rest escapes for a time, one by one these baccata forms have 
been going, until now there are only one or two in presentable 
condition. One of these is the variety repandens, a procumbent 
form which I suspect is known elsewhere under another name. 
This has an especially good chance to survive because in most 
winters it is covered with snow. 
Curiously, up to a few years ago, the variegated varieties of 
T. baccata stood best and we have had some very good speci- 
mens, but even of these only a straggly plant 
or two still remain. 
T. b. tardiva struggled along for a number of 
years, but never from the first seemed worth 
keeping except as a curiosity. T. b. Dovastoni 
was disposed to spread rather than get up. 
Although given exceptional care as to position, 
the plants went backwards most of the time. 
During one of the thrifty spells, it produced 
fruit and the same year our colony of Irish 
Yews, which formed part of the Topiary gar- 
den here, also fruited. Thus began a series of 
experiments in raising seedling Yews — by buds 
of the European and Japanese types — and the 
observations on their relative hardiness that 
forms the basis of these notes. 
The Irish Yews were grown in tubs and 
were kept under cover in winter and put out in 
spring, and when finally (tiring of this tedium) 
they were left out for the winter, they died. 
On the contrary, though, some of the seed- 
lings of the Irish Yew which have taken on a 
fastigiate form have proved perfectly hardy. 
Returning to the matter of the Japanese T. 
cuspidata: we have several forms, and the char- 
acters of each are distinct enough to be persist- 
ent when raised from cuttings. Some of these 
are shown in the accompanying illustrations. 
One is broadly columnar, or vasiform, branch- 
ing almost wholly from the base; another bowl- 
shaped showing no axis; one, known in the trade 
as T. c. capitata, is the upright-growing or tree 
form; one is umbellate in habit, forming a dis- 
tinct stem from which it branches horizontally, 
the branches recurving. 
We have still another of the cuspidata type 
which we call variety Sieboldii. I found this 
in Waterer’s Nursery in England, and was 
told it was a Chinese form. Of this I am in 
doubt, as the only known Chinese form is T. 
c. chinensis of Wilson, or from seed collected 
by him. Our Sieboldii is quite distinct, a free 
grower, and broadly vasiform and is now a 
