534. The Common Yew is a native of Europe, North America, and Japan. It used to be very plentiful in England and Ireland, and probably also in Scotland. Caesar mentions it as having been abundant in Gaul. It is now found in most parts of Europe, at elevations ranging from 1000 to 4000 feet, and is frequently met with on the Apennines and the Alps, in Greece, Spain, and the Pyrenees, and also in Great Britain. The tree is of slow growth, and attains a great age, some in this country being well known to be about 1000 years old.* It rises from the ground with a short but straight stem, which at the height of 3 or 4 feet sends out very numerous and spreading branches, forming a dense head, usually when full grown from 30 to 40 feet in height. The diameter of the stem is often very great. Evelyn mentions one at Crowhurst of 30 feet in circumference, and another at Braburne Churchyard, in Kent, of nearly 20 feet in diameter.

The wood of the yew is very hard, close, and fine-grained, flexible, elastic, splitting readily, and of great durability; it is also very durable for fencing, so much so that in some parts of England where it is plentiful there is a common saying that a paling post of yew will outlast a post of iron. Floodgates for ponds or mill-streams made of it are said to be of incredible duration. Before the invention of fire-arms, the yew was used in making the long-bow, and was one of the timbers of which it was directed to be made by a statute passed in the fifth year of the reign of Edward IV.

The colour of the wood is of a fine orange or deep brown; the sap-wood, which is also very hard, is white, but does not extend to any great depth. The yew is a beautiful wood for cabinet-making, but it requires a long time to dry; it shrinks, however, very little in seasoning. The weight of a specimen in the Exhibition of 1851 was 41.7 lbs. per cubic foot. The cohesive strength, according to Bevan, is 8000 lbs.

* Browns 'Forester,' 4th edit., p. 379.