the trees of great britain & ireland - Facsimile Books & other digitally ...

io6 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
In Italy, according to Piccioli, 1 the yew is found on the hills and in woods
of the mountain regions of the Apennines and the Alps. It is only found in the
maritime region in Liguria; but is common in Sardinia, where it ascends to 5660
feet. In Sicily it is found in the region of the olive, and occurs on Mount Etna,
mixed with beech, to a height of 6000 feet. The yew, however, is not mentioned
in Tornabene's Flora Aitnea.
In Greece 2 isolated trees occur in mountain woods up to the sub-alpine region.
It is recorded from near Kastania, in Pindus, Mount Olympus, and Oeta (Thessaly);
Mount Parnassus, Mount Malero (Laconia), and other places.
The yew 3 formerly occurred in the Azores, attaining timber size on Corvo and
Floras, whence it was exported as a source of royal revenue. It is now apparently
exterminated.
It occurs sporadically in the high mountains of Algeria,4 in the Atlas of Blidah,
Djurdjura, and Aures. A photograph of a venerable tree in Algeria, taken by
M. de Vilmorin, is reproduced in Garden and Forest, 1 896, p. 265.
In the Caucasus 5 it occurs throughout the whole territory, including Talysch,
at altitudes varying from sea-level to 5660 feet.
In Asia Minor it occurs in Anatolia and Mysia, according to Boissier. Kotschy
found it common in the Cilician Taurus from 6160 to 7600 feet altitude. Szovitch
collected it in Armenia. It also occurs in North Persia.
Some wood 6 found in the palaces of Nineveh, and recorded on a tablet as
having been brought as " cedar " from Lebanon, proved on microscopical examination
to be yew. (A. H.)
The yew, according to Gamble,7 is a conspicuous tree in the Himalayan forests,
at 6000 to 11,000 feet altitude from Afghanistan to Bhutan. It occurs in the Khasia
Hills at 5000 feet, and in Upper Burrnah at 5000 to 6000 feet. Sound trees are
very scarce, but a very large one cut in Sikkim in 1876 was quite sound. Gamble
has measured trees 20 feet in girth ; one, 16 feet in girth, had a cylindrical bole
30 feet high. Madden records a tree at Gangutri, near the source of the Ganges,
100 feet high and 15 feet in girth, which surpasses anything I know of else
where. I have seen fine yews at 9000-10,000 feet on the Tonglo ridge, which
divides Nepal and Sikkim, and have found many orchids upon them, one of
which, Ccelogyne ochracea, has lived for 24 years in my collection. The growth
in India varies from 23 to 55 rings per inch of radius. The timber weighs
46 to 59 Ibs. per cubic foot, and is used for bows, carrying-poles, and native
furniture, and if more common would be more extensively used, as it is very
strong and elastic, and works and polishes beautifully. It requires, however, long
seasoning.
Sir Joseph Hooker 8 noted that at 9500-10,000 feet on Tonglo the yew is an
1 Le Plante Legume ftalicme, 3 1 (1890). z Halacsy, Consf. Fl. Greece, iii. 459 (1904).
3 Trelease, Missouri Bot. Garden Ann. Report, viii. 1897, p. 169.
4 Battandier et Trabut, Flare de FAlgirie, 398 (1904).
6 Radde, Pflansenverbreilung in den Kaukasuslandern, 1 83 (1899).
6 G. llenslow in Garden, 1 904, ii. 73. ^ Gamble, Indian Timbers, 4 13.
8 flooker, Himalayan Journals, i. 168, 191, ii. 25 (1854).
Taxus 107
immense tall tree with long sparse branches and slender drooping twigs, while at
Choongtam (5000-6000 feet altitude) it is small and rigid, much resembling in
appearance our churchyard yew. The red bark is used as a dye and for staining
the foreheads of Brahmins in Nepaul.
There is a specimen at Kew, collected by Sir George Watt in Manipur, which
bore yellow berries.
In the United States 1 there are a number of large European yew trees in New
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, showing that the tree must have been brought
to the eastern United States more than a century ago. Sargent says that every
where south of Cape Cod it appears to be perfectly hardy. Farther east it suffers
from the cold in severe winters, and cannot be considered a desirable tree for general
planting in eastern New England. T. D. Hatfield, 2 writing from Wellesley in
Massachusetts, states that the variegated form of the common yew is hardy in places
where the green type perishes.
II. JAPANESE YEW, van cuspidata.—Ichii in Japan, Onko of the Ainos in
Hokkaido. Though Sargent says 8 that, judging from his observations, it is
confined to the island of Yezo, it is stated in the Forestry of Japan, p. 88, that
it is found also in Kiso and Nikko, and it was included in the list of trees growing
wild in the royal forest of Kiso, though I did not see it myself. In Nikko it is
planted in the temple gardens ; a fine specimen, of which I give an illustration taken at
this place (Plate 53), shows how much it resembles our yew in habit and appearance.
This tree was about 40 feet high by 12 in girth. In the Hokkaido it grows scattered
through the lowland and hill forests, among deciduous trees and conifers, but
nowhere, so far as I saw, gregariously, and attains a large size, trees of 50-60 feet
high with clear trunks 2-3 feet in diameter being not very rare. It sometimes
produces beautifully veined burrs, and when old is often rotten inside.
It is a favourite in gardens in Hokkaido, as trees of considerable size can
be moved without killing them. The wood, which seems milder, sounder, and
more free from holes and flaws than in England, is much used by the Japanese for
water-tanks, pails, and baths, and is cut into handsome trays, sometimes carved,
which I bought quite cheaply in Sapporo. 1 also procured large planks and slabs
of it, measuring as much as 26 inches wide, and quite sound, such as I have
never been able to get from English yews. Chopsticks, clogs, and the Aino bows
are also made of yew wood, and when cut into thin shavings very pretty braid is
made from it.
I was informed by Mr. N. Masaki of the Imperial Art School in Tokyo,
that the semifossil wood known at Sendai as Gindai-boku is dug from the bed of
the Natonigawa river, near which deposits of lignite are found. This wood was
believed by the carvers at Nikko to be fossil Cryptomeria wood, but is so like the
bog yew found in Great Britain in grain and colour that I have little doubt that
it is yew. This wood is only procured in small pieces of irregular shape, the largest
that I saw being made into a tray about 20 inches square. It is very hard, of
1 Garden and Forest, 1 897, p. 400. Large trees also occur at Washington, loc. tit. 1 896, p. 261. * Ibid. p. 405.
3 Forest Flora of Japan, p. 76.