THE YEWS - FAMILY TAXACEAE. Genus TAXUS, Linn. Evergreentrees and shrubs, with spreading, horizontal branches, and purple, scaly bark. Leaves linear, spiny, a-ranked, pale beneath. Flowers minute, dicecious, in axillary heads. Fruit berry-like, fleshy, sweet, scarlet.
KeY TO SPECIES A. Foliage yellow-green, short. (T. brevifolia) PACIFIC YEW AA. Foliage dark green, long. (T. Floridana) FLORIDA YEW There are six known species of yew, all confined to the North ern Hemisphere. The fruit is farther away from the coniferous type than that of any true member of the Family Conifer. Yet careful analysis of flowers and fruit show that the parts are there—the scales and the naked ovules—though development obliterates the signs of relationship to the pines and hemlocks.
The Yew (T. baccata, Linn.) is native to Europe, Asia and Africa. Its history is interwoven with the growth of civilisation. In the folk lore of the English cottagers the yew was saddest of all trees except the cypress. Branches of yew were gathered to deck the house where a body lay awaiting burial. The heads of mourners were bound with chaplets of yew. The sombre yew tree drooping over a grave was a favourite symbol in our great-grandmother's samplers, even so late as a century ago.
" Pluck, pluck cypress, 0 pale maidens, Dusk, 0 dusk the hall with yew! Weep, and wring Every hand; and every head Bind with cypress and sad yew For him that was of men most true." Yews were planted in churchyards, especially in the south of England. Could any dirge be sadder than the lines above quoted, or any tree a better symbol of inarticulate grief? There was another idea that probably was considered to lighten the gloom of funereal thoughts. The yew is one of the long-lived trees. It was regarded in some quarters as the emblem of immor tality. The name, yew, is believed to come from the same root as ewig, the German word meaning "everlasting." In the early wars the yeoman drew a long bow made of the tough wood of his native yew. Spenser called the tree "the shooter eugh." The English soldier bent his bow; the Frenchman drew his. The former was too heavy to lift. Bishop Latimer describes its use by the soldier on the battlefield: "Keeping his right hand at rest upon the nerve, he pressed the whole weight of his body into the horns of his bow." Beside its toughness and elasticity, the wood has other admirable qualities. It lasts indefinitely in soil and exposed to the weather. Its grain is often as handsome as mahogany. The roots often show wavy areas, which when polished and made into tables vied in beauty with the ancient and precious citron wood.
Burs of yew were a favourite veneer for tea caddies.
The best soil for yew trees is chalk, hence the tree grows its best in the Channel counties of England. Yet even in Scotland famous trees of remarkable age are recorded. The Fotheringal (Fortingall) Yew, 57 feet in circumference, proved by the rings of its stump that it had lived almost 3,000 years—"a world-old yew tree." "Addison's Walk," at Glasnevin, Ireland, lies between two rows of ancient yews. A close-bodied, compact tree, and tonsile beyond any other, the yew has always been a tree to cut into gro tesque and geometrical forms for the adornment of gardens in England and on the Continent. In the United States it is similarly employed where formal effects are desired. The tree is also grown and allowed to take its normal shape and reach what size it will. It is offered by nurserymen in many varieties.
The Pacific Yew (Taxes brevifolia, Nutt.)—A tree with broad head, of long, horizontal, pendulous limbs, and trunk irreg ularly lobed and flattened. Bark thin, covered with purplish scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, red. Leaves short, linear, 2-ranked, pale beneath, yellowish. Flowers dicecious, minute, in leaf axils. Fruit a translucent, scarlet berry. habitat, ravines and stream banks. Distribution, mountains of coast, from Alaska to southern California, east to Montana. Uses: Wood for posts, paddles and bows.
The cheerful green of its foliage relieves this yew of any funereal suggestion. It is a beautiful, if rarely a symmetrical evergreen tree, surprising tourists and delighting the birds with its brilliant berries in autumn. The Indian of Alaska cuts spear shafts, bows, paddles and other articles out of its wood. The settler uses it for fencing.
The Florida Yew (T. Floridana, Chapm.) is a small tree of bushy habit, often of many stems not zo feet high. It has the dark green of its European relative, and the same mournful expression. It is found only along the east bank of the Appa lachicola River in the northwestern corner of the state.
Our Eastern yew (Taxus minor, Britt.), commonly, but incor rectly, called ground hemlock, never assumes tree form, but is a sprawling shrub, its dense foliage forming in autumn a rich back ground for the bright scarlet berries. In cultivation this species becomes less straggling in growth. It is oftenest planted where an undercover is desired on irregular wooded ground. Its foliage takes on a warm tinge of red in winter. The berries are the delight of birds and boys. This is the hardiest yew.