Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol01.djvu/138

110 A. Fastigiate Forms.—In these the branches take an upward direction (vertical or ascending), and the leaves tend to spread out radially from the branchlets.

I. Var. fastigiata, Irish Yew, Florencecourt Yew.

Columnar and compact in habit, all the branches and branchlets being directed vertically upwards. Branches stout, branchlets few and short. Leaves, always spreading radially in all directions around the branchlets, dark green and shining, with the apex usually more obtuse than in the common yew. Dr. Masters considers the Irish yew to be a juvenile form, in which the characters of the seedling (the radial disposition of the leaves and the upright habit) are preserved throughout the life of the plant. As the original tree was a female, and the variety is propagated by cuttings, all Irish yews are of the same sex. When they bear flowers they are generally fertilised by the pollen of common yews growing in their neighbourhood, and the seed resulting, when planted, generally produces plants indistinguishable from the common yew. Dr. Masters received from Mr. Tillett of Sprowston, near Norwich, sprays of an Irish yew which bore male flowers. This was apparently an instance of a monœcious tree, a phenomenon which occurs though rarely in the common yew. No true male Irish yew has ever been met with. The aril of the Irish yew differs usually from that of the common form in being more oblong in shape.

The Irish yew was discovered in the mountains of Fermanagh above Florencecourt by a farmer named Willis about the year 1780. He found two plants, one of which he planted in his own garden, and is now no longer living. The other was planted at Florencecourt, the seat of the Earl of Enniskillen; and from it cuttings were distributed, which are the source of all the Irish yews in cultivation. The original tree is still living, and a figure of it is given in Veitch's Manual, p. 141, as it appeared about thirty years ago. Kent says that in 1900 it had an open straggling appearance.

One of the finest Irish yews known to us is that at Seaforde, near Clough, Co. Down, the seat of Major W.G. Forde. This tree was reported to be 33 feet high in 1888, and 35½ feet in 1903. A plate of it is given (Plate 5834 [sic]), reproduced from a photograph kindly sent us by the owner, who reports the present measurements (1905) to be:—Height, 37 feet; girth at the ground, 9 feet; circumference of branches at 20 feet from the ground, 91 feet.

Two large trees exist at Comber, Co. Down, of which Mr. Justice Andrews gives the following particulars in a letter:—

"The Irish upright yew trees at Comber, mentioned in Mackay's Flora Hibernica (1836), p. 260, are the two large yews in the garden beside 'Araghmore,' the residence of Mrs. John Andrews. My earliest recollection of them goes back