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102 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
specimen of bog-yew, drew attention in 1903 to the occurrence of yew in Ballyfin
bog in Queen's County. It was so plentiful there in former times that the
farmers in the neighbourhood used it for gate - posts and in roofing houses.
Mr. J. Adams has published a short account 1 of Mr. Cole's discovery, from
which it appears that the cross-section of one trunk, 2 feet in diameter, showed
no less than 395 annual rings. Another specimen showed 123 rings, only occupy
ing a width of i^ inches. Mr. Cole informs me that in no case where the
root was vertical did he find more than 18 inches deep of peat beneath; in other
parts of the bog where the yews were found more deeply buried, their roots were
twisted and out of their natural position, and were probably carried there by floods.
Apparently then, the yew, unlike the common pine, never grew in any great depth
of peat.
Large trunks of yew were formerly dug up on the shore of Magilligan in
Co. Derry, between the rocks and the sea. 2 On the east side of Glenveigh, in
Co. Donegal, thick logs are reported to be often found in the peat. 8
In the Kew Museum there is a specimen of fossil yew, which was dug up in
Hatfield Chase, near Thorne, Yorkshire, from under a bed of clay 6 feet in
thickness; and another specimen is labelled, " Submarine Forest, Stogursey,
Somersetshire."
Professor Seeley, F.R.S., in a very interesting letter, dated January 1904, says
that he has seen " the broken stumps of yew trees standing as they grew by scores,
possibly by hundreds, in Mildenhall Fen, about 1865, when the peat was entirely
removed so as to prepare the land for corn. One tree sketched by Mr. Marshall,
at that time Coroner for the Isle of Ely, from a section between Ely and Downham
Market, showed the yew growing in sandy gravel with black flints. The roots were
entirely in the gravel. Above the gravel is the ' Buttery Clay,' 2 feet 6 inches thick,
into which the trunk of the tree extended vertically, rising about i foot into the
Upper Peat, which was 4 feet 6 inches thick. This clay is marine, and is the delta
mud of the Cam and the Ouse deposited on the Lower Peat and beyond it, where
a depression of land admitted the sea over the Isle of Ely and killed the forests.
A little part of the Scrobicularia Clay is 6 feet thick, and the peat above it 18 feet
thick. The common trees in the peat there are pines and oaks. I have never seen
the beech, and never heard of the lime. About the pine there is no doubt. It
occurred in the forests of the Forest Bed of Norfolk, and at several localities in the
peat of the fens, almost always on clay covered by peat."
In the present day the common yew is met with growing wild in most parts of
Europe, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic to the
western provinces of Russia. It has only recently become extinct in the Azores.
It also occurs in Algeria, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, North Persia, the Himalayas,
and Burma. The yew also extends into the mountains of Sumatra, South Celebes,
and the Philippines.4
1 Irish Naturalist, xiv. 1905, p. 34, with plate showing yew trunk and transverse section.
2 Mackay, Flora Hibernica, 260 (1836).
3 Hart, Flora County Donegal, 237 (1898).
4 Specimens from these localities have been identified by Pilger as the Himalayan yew.
Taxus 103
In England the yew is indigenous on all the chalky Downs of Sussex,
Hampshire, and Wilts. According to Bromfield, 1 the yew is one of the few
natural ornaments of our South Downs, over the bare sides and summits of which
it is scattered abundantly as single trees, frequently of great size and antiquity ;
sometimes in groups; more rarely forming groves in the bottoms or valleys
between these rounded hills, or in the steep woods which clothe their sheltered
slopes. He mentions as one of the most remarkable of these yew groves, that at
Kingsley Bottom, near Chichester. The yew is remarkably plentiful on the banks
of the Wye, about Chepstow and Tintern, and grows in the most inaccessible
positions on the limestone cliffs there, as it does also on the rocks of Matlock. The
rocks at Borrodale and on Conzie Scar, near Kendal, are also truly natural stations
of the yew. 2 The yew is frequent in the woods of Monmouthshire, and in the
ancient forest of Cranbourne Chase in Dorsetshire. 8 In the Wyre Forest it is
certainly wild, occurring now as isolated trees amidst the beech and oak. In
Seckley Wood, on the Severn, there are indigenous yew trees, one of which is
remarkable for its curious pendulous habit. 4 It ascends to 1500 feet in Northumber
land. 5
Concerning the occurrence of the yew as a wild plant in Scotland our informa
tion is scanty. Hooker 6 states that it is indigenous as far north as Aberdeen and
Argyll. White 6 records it from Breadalbane in Perthshire. Lightfoot, 7 writing in
1777, says it was found here and there in the Highlands in a truly wild state, and
that there were the remains of an old wood of yew at Glenure in Upper Lorn,
Argyllshire.
It is now of rare occurrence in the wild state in Ireland. According to
Praeger,8 it is found on rocks, cliffs, in old woods, and on lake shores, now almost
confined to the west. It is recorded from various localities from Kerry to Donegal,
and Praeger considers that some of these instances may represent the last remnants
of aboriginal stock ; but it is impossible now to say definitely, as introduced trees
grow around the supposed wild ones. The yews in the rough wood at Avondale, in
Wicklow, may be wild. Many years ago Moore 9 found the yew growing at
Benyevena, in Co. Derry, in the crevices of the rocks, at an elevation of 1200 feet,
when it assumed the appearance of a low shrub. In Smith's Kerry ( 1756), it
is stated that " the yew grew in prodigious quantities in all our southern baronies
until it was destroyed for making coals for the iron-works." 10
In Norway the yew is called " Barlind," and, according to Schubeler," grows
wild only in the south, especially along the coast, the farthest point north known to
him being near Sondmore, in lat. 62" 30" N., where it attains the height of 32 feet.
In the east it does not extend farther north than Hurdalen, lat. 60 35', where it
attains a height of 8 -10 feet. Schubeler mentions as the largest yews known
1 Flora Vectensis, p. 472.
3 Strangways in London's Card. Mag. 1 839, p. 119.
6 Stud. Flora Brit. Islands, 369 (1878).
1 Flora Scotica, ii. 626 (1777).
0 Mackay, Flora Hibernica, 260 (1836).
11 Schubeler, Viridarittm Norvegicum, p. 448.
2 Lowe, loc. cit. p. 28.
4 Trans. Worcester Nat. Hist. Club, 1 847-1896, p. 16.
8 Flora of Perthshire, 283 (1898).
8 Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. vii. 290 (1901).
10 Cybele Hibernica, 3 31 (1898).