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118 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland occurrence of poisoning. Also the half-dried leaves would be, cateris paribus, more potent than the fresh. " Further and extended chemical researches, in conjunction with physiological experiments, are necessary to clear up the matter. " The principle having a specific uterine action is possibly not the same as that which causes death." This poison, if taken in sufficient quantity, is deadly to man, horses, asses, sheep, cattle, pigs, pheasants, and possibly other animals, but under ordinary circumstances small quantities of the leaves may be and are habitually eaten by live-stock without apparent injury, whilst it seems proved that the wood of the yew may be used for water vessels and for baths, as in Japan, without any deleterious effects. Sargent, Silva of. North America, vol. x., 63, says " no cases of poisoning by Taxus in North America appear to be recorded " ; and Brandis, Forest Flora of British India, p. 541, says that "in India domestic animals are said to browse upon T. baccata without experiencing any bad effects." With regard to the danger of allowing this tree to grow in hedges and fields where stock are pastured, there seems to be abundant evidence, which is well summarised by Mr. E. P. Squarey, and which my own experience entirely confirms, that though animals which have been bred and fed in places where they have access to yew are more or less immune, probably because they never eat it in sufficient quantity to do harm, yet that animals freshly turned into such places when hungry, or in winter and spring when there is little grass, are liable to die from eating it, and that fatal effects most commonly ensue when loppings or partially withered branches and leaves are eaten. It has been held in more than one case that landowners, and others responsible for keeping up fences, who allow yew trees to remain insufficiently fenced, are liable to an action for damages if another person's cattle from adjoining land eat the branches and die. With regard to the danger of yew trees in game coverts we have little exact knowledge, but in certain cases there seems to be evidence of its being poisonous to pheasants, and the following passage, which was communicated by Sir William ffolkes, Bart., of Hillington Hall, Norfolk, to the editor of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1 892, p. 698, is worth quoting in full. " Some years ago, when shooting through the coverts here the second time, we found about fifteen carcasses of pheasants under some yew trees. These could not have been overlooked the first time in picking up, as there was no stand anywhere near this place where so many pheasants could have been shot. My keeper informs me that it is after the pheasants have been disturbed by shooting that they take to perching in the yew trees. This may or may not be so, but at any rate it appears that, when they take to perching in these trees, they are apt to eat a few of the leaves. We now always drive them off the yew trees when they go to perch at night. I enclose some of the yew which poisoned the pheasants, and would like to add that never before this year have Taxus 119 we picked up a dead pheasant anywhere near these yew trees till the coverts had been shot." We have no record of any case of deer being poisoned by yew, though no doubt in a heavy snow they might be tempted to eat it, and Mr. Squarey states that in the " Great and Little Yews" of which I write later, hares and rabbits, which are very numerous, have never been found dead from poisoning. I may add that I have frequently seen yews of a few inches in girth barked and killed by rabbits where they are very numerous and hungry, but it is one of the last trees to be attacked. CULTIVATION The yew is best raised from seed, except in the case of varieties which are propagated by cuttings, which are taken off in April or August and put into sandy soil in a shady border, or, better, under a handlight, as they will then root more quickly. Seed, if sown when ripe, will sometimes come up in the following spring, but usually lies over the first year, and is therefore treated like haws. The seedlings grow very slowly at first, and require several years of nursery cultivation before they are large enough to plant out. They are easy to transplant in early autumn or in spring, and may be safely moved at almost any time of the year even when of large size, if care is taken to prepare the roots and keep them watered until new ones are formed. The yew in Buckland Churchyard, about a mile from Dover, may be mentioned as an instance of the great age at which this tree may be transplanted with safety, if proper care and appliances are used. This tree was a very old and large one, divided into two stems, one of which, almost horizontal, was 10 feet 10 inches, and the entire trunk no less than 22 feet in girth. It was removed by the late Mr. W. Barren on March i, 1880, to a position 60 yards off, where Mr. John Barron of Elvaston Nurseries tells me it is now in a vigorous state of health. An account of this tree is given by Lowe; and the manner in which it was transplanted, with pictures of its appearance before and after removal, is described fully in Card. Chron. 1 880, p. 556-7. By sowing seeds there is some chance of obtaining variegated forms, which are among the most ornamental shrubs we have. The Hon. Vicary Gibbs has found that at Aldenham the use of nitrate of soda increases in a marked degree the growth of young yew trees. Some yews planted by him in 1897 and treated with liberal quantities of this manure had attained in 1905 an average height of 12 feet, with a girth of stem of 16 inches at a foot above the base. SOIL AND SITUATION Though the yew grows naturally most commonly on limestone formations in England, it will grow on almost any soil except perhaps pure peat and wet clay,
120 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland Taxus 121 and attains its largest dimensions on deep sandy loam. It grows better under dense shade than any tree we have, and may therefore be used for under- planting beech-woods where bare ground is objected to, and where the soil is too poor and dry or too limy for silver fir. In such situations, however, it grows very slowly and produces little or no fruit. REMARKABLE TREES No tree, except perhaps the oak, has a larger literature in English than the yew ; and though a monograph on the Yew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland by the late John Lowe, M.D., was published by Macmillan so lately as 1897, I am able to add many records of trees not known to him, and shall not allude to most of the trees which he has described and figured. It is strange that neither Loudon, Lowe, nor any other writer has, so far as I know, described the yews in the close walks at Midhurst, which, on account of their extraordinary height, form what I believe to be the most remarkable yew- grove in Great Britain or elsewhere. The age and history of these wonderful trees is lost in obscurity, but it is said in Wm. Roundell's very interesting book on Cowdray* that Queen Elizabeth was entertained at a banquet in these walks, so they must have been of considerable age and size 300 years ago. The close walks are situated close to the town on the other side of the river, and consist of four avenues of yew trees forming a square of about 150 yards, together with a grove of yews at the upper end which average, as nearly as I could measure them, about 75 feet in height, but some probably exceed 80. These trees are for the most part sound and healthy, though little care has been taken of them, and some have fallen. They are remarkable not only for their great height, which exceeds that of any other yews on record in Europe, but on account of their freedom from large branches, many having clean boles of 20 - 30 feet with a girth of 8-9 feet. They stand so thick together that on an area of about half an acre or less I made 213 paces in going round it I counted about 100 trees and saw the stumps of 10 or 12 more, which would probably average over 30 cubic feet to each tree without reckoning the branches. The ground below is absolutely bare of vegetation, and though I found some small seedlings among the grass and briars on the outside of this area, I do not think the yew grows from seed under its own shade. The photographs (Plates 54, 55) will give a fair idea of the appearance of this wonderful grove, and of the walks which lead to it. Some of the trees have a remarkable spiral twist in them like fluted columns, which I have not seen so well developed elsewhere. The soil on which they stand seems to be of a light sandy nature, but deep enough to grow large fine timber of other species, and is, I believe, on the Lower Greensand formation. 1 Cf. Guide to Midhurst, p. 41 (Midhurst: G. Roynon (1903)). Another and perhaps the largest pure yew-wood in England is on the downs three miles west of Downton, Wilts, on the property of the Earl of Radnor. It is known as " The Great Yews," and contains about 80 acres. The trees are not remarkable for their size, and appear to have been partly planted, as the largest are at regular intervals and of about the same age. Probably at a time when yew - wood was wanted for bow - making an existing wood was filled up with planted trees, and no doubt these yews could tell some striking tales. Mr. E. P. Squarey, who took me to see them, and who has seen little change in them during the last 60 years, pointed out one under which some tramps had been caught in the act of roasting a sheep they had stolen, and related various tragedies which had occurred in this wild district in bygone times. " The Little Yews " is the name of another wood about half a mile from the " Great Yews," which, though not of such large extent, contains much finer trees, many being from 8 feet to 10 feet in girth and 50 feet high. As in other yew woods (at any rate where rabbits exist) I found few or no young trees coming up, and the mixture of beech, ash, oak, thorn, whitebeam, and holly trees which are found in the more open spaces all appear to be self-sown. Several of the largest trees have been recently blown down. After the Midhurst and the Great and Little Yews, I think the Cherkley Court Yew Wood is the best in England; and, thanks to the kindness of A. Dixon, Esq., the owner, I am able to give some particulars of this interesting place, which Lowe thought to be the finest collection of yews in existence. The wood covers an area of 50 to 60 acres in a shallow valley forming part of the old Ashurst estate, about three miles from Leatherhead in Surrey, on the east side of the old pilgrims' road to Canterbury. It was formerly a rabbit warren, but is now carefully preserved by Mr. Dixon. It is said that 500 yew trees were once sold out of this wood by Mr. Boxall for 10 guineas each, and these two facts will probably account for the fact that there are now scarcely any young trees coming up, and but few trees with straight, tall trunks. Their average height does not exceed about 40 feet, and the majority of them are not well-grown trees, but there are some of great girth, of which the best is called the Queen Yew, and measures 14 feet 6 inches at i foot from the ground ; then swelling out in a peculiar way and measuring 20 feet 4 inches at about 4 feet. At this height it begins to branch, and though the main stem goes up some way, the whole tree is certainly under 50 feet in height. One of the most curious trees in this grove, called the Cauliflower Yew, was figured in the Gardeners Chronicle, and copied in Veitch's Conifers, ed. ii. p. 128. This tree has now lost much of its beauty, owing to a heavy snowstorm which occurred in 1884 and which did serious damage to the Cherkley Yew Wood. Another place of great interest to naturalists, where the yew is in great abundance, is Castle Eden Dene, in Durham, the property of Rowland Burden, Esq. This locality is renowned among botanists as the last in England where the ladies' slipper orchid (Cypripedium Calceolus) still exists. It is a deep valley about 3 to 4 miles long, running down to the sea, and, in some places, has steep cliffs of a
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»f rees Great Britain Ireland BY H
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Trees of Great Britain Ireland BY H
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PREFACE THE United Kingdom offers a
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CONTENTS PAGE DEDICATION ........ v
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The Trees of Great Britain and Irel
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The Trees of Great Britain and Irel
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8 The Trees of Great Britain and Ir
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12 The Trees of Great Britain and I
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Page 29 and 30: SOPHORA Sophora, Linnaeus, Gen. PI.
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Page 63 and 64: 104 The Trees of Great Britain and
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Page 67 and 68: in The Trees of Great Britain and I
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Page 113 and 114: a 7" KSrJi «£^«~ **». . "" ^ '"
Page 115 and 116: INARCHED BP;ECH AT ASIIRIDGE TLATE
Page 117 and 118: 13KECII WOOD AT SLINHON A ru 6.
Page 119 and 120: BEECH AT NEWBATTLE Pi .ATE 8.
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I BEECH AT GORDON CASTLE TLAI-K 10.
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KING BEECH AT KNOLE I'LAIE 12.
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AILANTHUS AT BELTON PLATE 14.
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SOI'HORA AT CAMBRIDGE PLATE 16.
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ARAUCARIA FOREST IN CM ILK I'l.MT.
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ARAUCARIAS AT BEAUFORT
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MAIDENHAIR T liEK AT FKOGMOKF. PLAT
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TULIP TREE IN NORTH CAROLINA 1'LATE
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TULIP TREE AT KILLERTON PLATE 26.
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PLATE SERVIAN SPRUCE IN BOSNIA 28.
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MENZIES' SPRUCE AT BEAUFORT PLATE 3
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YEW AVENUE AT MIDIIURST PLATE 32.
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i '*m i t /n b &; y'JM i /Jk, - •
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•• *-' YEW AT WHITTIKGHAME PLAT
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CRYPTOMERIA FOREST IN NORTH JAPAN 1
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CRYPTOMEKIAS AT IMAICHI I'l.ATE 40.
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CRYPTOMERIA AT HEMSTED PLATK 42.
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PYRUS. PLATE 44.
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SORB TREE AT ARLEV PLATE 46.
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SERVICE TREE AT RICKMANSWORTH >.mmm
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'^iji^m^^Jt^.^M. SERVICE TREE AT SY
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS IN VIRGINIA PLATE
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DECIDUOUS CYPRESS AT SYON Tr.ATE 54
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GIANT THUYA IN VANCOUVER'S ISLAND P
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Plate 58 represents the trunk of wh
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j« WESTERN HEMLOCK GROWING ON FALL
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