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.[3] 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 Northumberland."
Concerning the occurrence of the yew as a wild plant in Scotland our information is scanty. Hooker[5] 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,[11] 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
- ↑ Flora Vectensis, p. 472.
- ↑ Lowe, loc. cit. p. 28.
- ↑ Strangways in Loudon's Gard. Mag. 1839, p. 119.
- ↑ Trans. Worcester Nat. Hist. Club, 1847–1896, p. 16.
- ↑ Stud. Flora Brit. Islands, 369 (1878).
- ↑ Flora of Perthshire, 283 (1898).
- ↑ Flora Scotica, ii. 626 (1777).
- ↑ Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. vii. 290 (1901).
- ↑ Mackay, Flora Hibernica, 260 (1836).
- ↑ Cybele Hibernica, 331 (1898).
- ↑ Schubeler, Viridarium Norvegicum, p. 448.
