EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
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oerries have an exquisitely delicate, waxen appearance, 
and contribute highly to the beauty of the tree. 
The growth of this tree, even in its native soil, is by no 
means rapid. In twenty years, says Loudon, it will attain 
the height of fifteen or eighteen feet, and it will continue 
growing for one hundred years ; after which it becomes 
comparatively stationary, but will live many centuries. 
When young, the Yew is rather compact and bushy in 
its form ; but as it grows old, the foliage spreads out in fine 
horizontal masses, the outline of the tree is irregularly 
varied, and the whole ultimately becomes highly venerable 
and picturesque. When standing alone, it generally shoots 
out into branches at some three or four feet above the 
surface of the ground, and is ramified into a great number 
of close branches. 
[Fig. 39. The English Yew.J 
In England, it has been customary, since the earliest 
settlement of that island by the Britons, to plant the Yew 
in churchyards ; and it is therefore as decidedly conse- 
crated to this purpose there, as the Cypress is in the south 
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