In Italy, according to Piccioli,[1] the yew is found on the hills and in woods of the mountain regions of the Apennines and the Alps. It is only found in the maritime region in Liguria; but is common in Sardinia, where it ascends to 5660 feet. In Sicily it is found in the region of the olive, and occurs on Mount Etna, mixed with beech, to a height of 6000 feet. The yew, however, is not mentioned in Tornabene's Flora Ætnea.
In Greece[2] isolated trees occur in mountain woods up to the sub-alpine region. It is recorded from near Kastania, in Pindus, Mount Olympus, and Oeta (Thessaly); Mount Parnassus, Mount Malero (Laconia), and other places.
The yew[3] formerly occurred in the Azores, attaining timber size on Corvo and Flores, whence it was exported as a source of royal revenue. It is now apparently exterminated.
It occurs sporadically in the high mountains of Algeria,[4] in the Atlas of Blidah, Djurdjura, and Aures. A photograph of a venerable tree in Algeria, taken by M. de Vilmorin, is reproduced in Garden and Forest, 1896, p. 265.
In the Caucasus[5] it occurs throughout the whole territory, including Talysch, at altitudes varying from sea-level to 5660 feet.
In Asia Minor it occurs in Anatolia and Mysia, according to Boissier. Kotschy found it common in the Cilician Taurus from 6160 to 7600 feet altitude. Szovitch collected it in Armenia. It also occurs in North Persia.
Some wood[6] found in the palaces of Nineveh, and recorded on a tablet as having been brought as "cedar" from Lebanon, proved on microscopical examination to be yew. (A.H.)
The yew, according to Gamble,[7] is a conspicuous tree in the Himalayan forests, at 6000 to 11,000 feet altitude from Afghanistan to Bhutan. It occurs in the Khasia Hills at 5000 feet, and in Upper Burmah at 5000 to 6000 feet. Sound trees are very scarce, but a very large one cut in Sikkim in 1876 was quite sound. Gamble has measured trees 20 feet in girth; one, 16 feet in girth, had a cylindrical bole 30 feet high. Madden records a tree at Gangutri, near the source of the Ganges, 100 feet high and 15 feet in girth, which surpasses anything I know of elsewhere. I have seen fine yews at 9000-10,000 feet on the Tonglo ridge, which divides Nepal and Sikkim, and have found many orchids upon them, one of which, Cœlogyne ochracea, has lived for 24 years in my collection. The growth in India varies from 23 to 55 rings per inch of radius. The timber weighs 46 to 59 lbs. per cubic foot, and is used for bows, carrying-poles, and native furniture, and if more common would be more extensively used, as it is very strong and elastic, and works and polishes beautifully. It requires, however, long seasoning.
Sir Joseph Hooker[8] noted that at 9500–10,000 feet on Tonglo the yew is an
- ↑ Le Plante Legnose Italiane, 31 (1890).
- ↑ Halácsy, Consp. Fl. Græcæ, iii. 459 (1904).
- ↑ Trelease, Missouri Bot. Garden Ann. Report, viii. 1897, p. 169.
- ↑ Battandier et Trabut, Flore de l'Algérie, 398 (1904).
- ↑ Radde, Pflanzenverbreitung in den Kaukasusländern, 183 (1899).
- ↑ G. Henslow in Garden, 1904, ii. 73.
- ↑ Gamble, Indian Timbers, 413.
- ↑ Hooker, Himalayan Journals, i. 168, 191, ii. 25 (1854).
