a rich reddish brown colour, and when polished or carved is extremely handsome.
The Japanese yew also occurs in Saghalien, the Kurile Isles,[1] Amurland, and Manchuria, Apparently it is very variable in habit, as Maximowicz[2] regarded the Amurland plant as a mere shrub, though in one place in the mountains he saw a tree a foot in diameter. Trautvetter[2] saw no difference between the yew in Amurland and in Europe, except that the seed of the former was smaller and more pointed.
The Japanese yew was introduced into England between the years 1854 and 1856 by Fortune,[3] who states that he received it from Mr. Beale in Shanghai, to whom it had been sent from Japan. It was first cultivated and propagated by Mr. Glendinning of the Chiswick Nursery. It has not grown to be a tree in England so far as we know, as it assumes rather the form of a large branching shrub with two or three stems. It is usually distinguished from the other yews, as seen in cultivation, by the peculiar yellow colour of the under-surface of the leaves, which are broad, somewhat leathery in texture, and abruptly pointed. This yellow colour is not, however, confined to the Japanese yew, as it occurs in the Chinese yew, and also apparently in some Pyrenean specimens, and is perhaps due to climatic influences.
According to Sargent[4] the Japanese yew was introduced into the eastern United States in 1862, and has proved to be perfectly hardy as far north as Boston. It grows rapidly in cultivation, and promises to become a large long-lived tree. Sargent speaks of a dwarf compact form of this plant with short dark green leaves in cultivation in the United States, which probably originated in Japanese gardens. It often appears under the name of Taxus brevifolia, but must not be confounded with the true Taxus brevifolia of the Pacific coast. This is doubtless the Taxus cuspidata, var. compacta, of the Kew Hand List, of which we have seen no specimen. Sargent has also seen in California a yew with fastigiate, somewhat spreading branches, which had been imported from Japan, evidently another garden variety of Taxus cuspidata.
III. Chinese Yew, var. sinensis.—The yew has only been found in China, in the provinces of Hupeh and Szechuan, where it is a very rare tree in the mountains at 6000 to 8000 feet, occurring on wooded cliffs. The largest tree seen by Henry was about 20 feet in height, but with a girth of 7 or 8 feet. The bark is almost a bright red in colour. Franchet[5] considered the Chinese yew to resemble Taxus cuspidata, S. et Z., which in his opinion does not seem to differ from the European yew in any positive character. The Chinese mountaineers reported the timber to be red, strong, and of fine quality, and called the tree Kuan-yin-sha, "the fir of the Goddess of Mercy."
IV. Pacific Coast Yew, var. brevifolia.—Though this tree was introduced by William Lobb in 1854,[6] it is still very rare, and we know no specimens of any size in
- ↑ Miyabe, "Flora of Kurile Isles," in Mem. Boston Soc. Nal. Hist. iv. 261 (1890).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Primitiæ Floræ Amurensis, 259 (1859).
- ↑ Gard. Chron. 1860, p. 170. Article by Fortune on Chinese Plants introduced during his travels in China in 1854–1856.
- ↑ Garden and Forest, 1897, p. 402.
- ↑ Jour. de Bot. 1899, p. 264.
- ↑ Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, ed. I, 305 (1881).
