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io8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Taxus 109
a rich reddish brown colour, and when polished or carved is extremely hand
some.
The Japanese yew also occurs in Saghalien, the Kurile Isles, 1 Amurland, and
Manchuria. Apparently it is very variable in habit, as Maximowicz 2 regarded the
Amurland plant as a mere shrub, though in one place in the mountains he saw a tree
a foot in diameter. Trautvetter 2 saw no difference between the yew in Amurland
and in Europe, except that the seed of the former was smaller and more pointed.
The Japanese yew was introduced into England between the years 1854 and
1856 by Fortune, 3 who states that he received it from Mr. Beale in Shanghai, to
whom it had been sent from Japan. It was first cultivated and propagated by
Mr. Glendinning of the Chiswick Nursery. It has not grown to be a tree in
England so far as we know, as it assumes rather the form of a large branching shrub
with two or three stems. It is usually distinguished from the other yews, as seen in
cultivation, by the peculiar yellow colour of the under-surface of the leaves, which
are broad, somewhat leathery in texture, and abruptly pointed. This yellow colour
is not, however, confined to the Japanese yew, as it occurs in the Chinese yew, and
also apparently in some Pyrenean specimens, and is perhaps due to climatic
influences.
According to Sargent 4 the Japanese yew was introduced into the eastern
United States in 1862, and has proved to be perfectly hardy as far north as Boston.
It grows rapidly in cultivation, and promises to become a large long-lived tree.
Sargent speaks of a dwarf compact form of this plant with short dark green leaves in
cultivation in the United States, which probably originated in Japanese gardens.
It often appears under the name of Taxus brevifolia, but must not be confounded
with the true Taxus brevifolia of the Pacific coast. This is doubtless the Taxus
cuspidata, var. compacta, of the Kew Hand List, of which we have seen no specimen.
Sargent has also seen in California a yew with fastigiate, somewhat spreading
branches, which had been imported from Japan, evidently another garden variety
of Taxus cuspidata.
III. CHINESE YEW, var. sinensis.—The yew has only been found in China, in the
provinces of Hupeh and Szechuan, where it is a very rare tree in the mountains at
6000 to 8000 feet, occurring on wooded cliffs. The largest tree seen by Henry was
about 20 feet in height, but with a girth of 7 or 8 feet. The bark is almost a bright
red in colour. Franchet 5 considered the Chinese yew to resemble Taxus cuspidata,
S. et Z., which in his opinion does not seem to differ from the European yew in any
positive character. The Chinese mountaineers reported the timber to be red, strong,
and of fine quality, and called the tree Kuan-yin-sha, " the fir of the Goddess of
Mercy."
IV. PACIFIC COAST YEW, var. brevifolia.—Though this tree was introduced by
William Lobb in 1854, it is still very rare, and we know no specimens of any size in
1 Miyabe, "Flora of Kurile Isles," in .)/«»/. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. iv. 261 (1890).
* Primitia Flora: Amurensis, 259 (1859).
3 Card, Chron. 1 860, p. 170. Article by Fortune on Chinese Plants introduced during his travels in China in 1854-1856.
4 Garden and Forest, 1 897, p. 402. 6 Jour, de Bel. 1 899, p. 264.
c Veitch's Man. Coniferce, t-d. I, 305 (1881).
/
England, though it might be so easily mistaken for the common yew, that we have
possibly overlooked it. It would no doubt grow well in England, as it is a native of
the colder and damper parts of the north-west coast of America, from Queen Charlotte
Islands along the coast ranges of British Columbia, western Washington, and Oregon ;
in California on the Sierra Nevada at 5000 to 8000 feet, and as far south as Monterey;
and extends eastward to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Montana,
where it becomes shrubby in habit. I have seen it in Washington on the slopes
of Mount Tacoma, where it grew isolated in the dense forest, and attained no
great size, though it occasionally reaches a height of 70 to 80 feet. In Vancouver's
Island it is not uncommon in the rich, low meadows of the east coast, but the largest
I saw were not over 30 to 40 feet high. The wood seemed indistinguishable from
that of the European species, and was, like it, rotten at heart in old trees and
full of holes. Sargent says that the Indians use it for bows, paddles, spear handles,
and fish-hooks, but except for fencing posts it does not seem to be used by settlers.
V. CANADIAN YEW, var. canadensis.—This is only a creeping shrub with a stem
occasionally a foot or two in height, and though it is said by Loudon to have been
introduced in 1800, it has never obtained a place in English gardens. I have seen it
common in Canada in thick forest, where it produced red berries very like those of
our yew. Sargent gives its distribution as from Newfoundland to the northern
shores of Lakes Superior and Winnipeg, southwards through the Northern States to
New Jersey and Minnesota.
VI. FLORIDA YEW, var. floridana.—This is one of the rarest of North American
trees, confined to a few localities in Western Florida, and, except by its habit, not
easily distinguished from T. canadensis. I t is usually shrubby, rarely attaining 25
feet high. It has never been introduced to cultivation in England, and is probably
not hardy.
VII. MEXICAN YEW, var. globosa.—A tree about 20 feet in height, discovered in
1837 by Ehrenberg in Southern Mexico. There are also specimens at Kew of yews
collected in Mexico by Hartweg, F. Miiller, and W. Saunders, which vary con
siderably in foliage. This variety is scarcely known, as recent collectors have
failed to rediscover the tree. It is very like the common yew.
(H. J. E.)
VARIETIES OF THE COMMON YEW IN CULTIVATION
These have in some cases originated as individual sports in the wild state ; in
other cases they are due to the art of the gardener, who has greatly increased the
number of varieties by selection. They differ from the type in various ways : (i) in
habit (fastigiate, prostrate, pendulous, and dwarf forms); (2) in the colour, shape, size,
and disposition on the branchlets of the leaves ; (3) in the colour of the fruit. AndreV
in an interesting article, illustrated by figures, has drawn attention to the remarkable
differences which occur in the shape of the seed and of the aril in the different culti
vated varieties; but it is probable that these are not so constant as he believed.
1 Revue Horticole, 1 886, p. 105, translated in Garden, 1 889, xxxv. 36.