immense tall tree with long sparse branches and slender drooping twigs, while at Choongtam (5000–6000 feet altitude) it is small and rigid, much resembling in appearance our churchyard yew. The red bark is used as a dye and for staining the foreheads of Brahmins in Nepaul.
There is a specimen at Kew, collected by Sir George Watt in Manipur, which bore yellow berries.
In the United States[1] there are a number of large European yew trees in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, showing that the tree must have been brought to the eastern United States more than a century ago. Sargent says that everywhere south of Cape Cod it appears to be perfectly hardy. Farther east it suffers from the cold in severe winters, and cannot be considered a desirable tree for general planting in eastern New England. T.D. Hatfield,[2] writing from Wellesley in Massachusetts, states that the variegated form of the common yew is hardy in places where the green type perishes.
II. Japanese Yew, var. cuspidata.—Ichii in Japan, Onko of the Ainos in Hokkaido. Though Sargent says[3] that, judging from his observations, it is confined to the island of Yezo, it is stated in the Forestry of Japan, p. 88, that it is found also in Kiso and Nikko, and it was included in the list of trees growing wild in the royal forest of Kiso, though I did not see it myself. In Nikko it is planted in the temple gardens; a fine specimen, of which I give an illustration taken at this place (Plate 53), shows how much it resembles our yew in habit and appearance. This tree was about 40 feet high by 12 in girth. In the Hokkaido it grows scattered through the lowland and hill forests, among deciduous trees and conifers, but nowhere, so far as I saw, gregariously, and attains a large size, trees of 50-60 feet high with clear trunks 2–3 feet in diameter being not very rare. It sometimes produces beautifully veined burrs, and when old is often rotten inside.
It is a favourite in gardens in Hokkaido, as trees of considerable size can be moved without killing them. The wood, which seems milder, sounder, and more free from holes and flaws than in England, is much used by the Japanese for water-tanks, pails, and baths, and is cut into handsome trays, sometimes carved, which I bought quite cheaply in Sapporo. I also procured large planks and slabs of it, measuring as much as 26 inches wide, and quite sound, such as I have never been able to get from English yews. Chopsticks, clogs, and the Aino bows are also made of yew wood, and when cut into thin shavings very pretty braid is made from it.
I was informed by Mr. N. Masaki of the Imperial Art School in Tokyo, that the semifossil wood known at Sendai as Gindai-boku is dug from the bed of the Natonigawa river, near which deposits of lignite are found. This wood was believed by the carvers at Nikko to be fossil Cryptomeria wood, but is so like the bog yew found in Great Britain in grain and colour that I have little doubt that it is yew. This wood is only procured in small pieces of irregular shape, the largest that I saw being made into a tray about 20 inches square. It is very hard, of
