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arboretum and fruticetum.

I’ART I

of the vine, suggests the idea of planting female yew trees near vineries.(Ilort. Trans.)

The yew makes excellent hedges for shelter; undergrowth for the protectionof game; and, when planted thick on suitable soil, so as to be drawn up withclean and straight trunks, most valuable timber. When the hedge is wantedto be of one shade of green, the plants should all be raised from cuttings ofthe same tree; and, when they are intended to show fruit, in order to rivala holly hedge, only female plants should be chosen; and the hedge, like hollyhedges kept for their fruit, should be cut in with a knife, and never clippedwith the shears. Single scattered trees, when intended to be ornamental bytheir berries, should, of course, always be females; and, in order to determinetheir sex, they should not be removed to where they are finally to remain tillthey have flowered. This may, doubtless, be accelerated by ringing a branchon each plant after it has attained 5 or 6 years’ growth.

The use of the yew tree in ancient topiary gardening, during the seventeenthcentury, was as extensive, in England and France , as that of the box seems tohave been in Italy in the days of Pliny . The practice was rendered fashion-able by Evelyn, previously to which the clipping of trees as garden ornamentswas chiefly confined to plants of box, juniper, &c., kept by the commercialgardeners of the day in pots and boxes, and trained for a number of years, tillthe figure required was complete. Sometimes, as we find by Gibson, Bradley,and others, clipped plants of this sort sold as high as five guineas each; and, inall probability, this high price first led Evelyn to the idea of clipping the morehardy yew in situations where it was finally to remain. The narrowness ofthe leaves of the yew renders it far less disfigured by clipping than even thebox ; and, as it is much hardier than the juniper, should clipped trees comeagain into fashion, there can be no doubt that the yew would be preferred toall others. As an avenue tree, the yew may be considered suitable forapproaches to cemeteries, mausoleums, or tombs; and, as a single tree, forscattering in churchyards and burial-grounds.

In modern gardening, the yew is chiefly valued as undergrowth, and forsingle trees and small groups in particular situations. “Asto its picturesqueperfections,” says Gilpin, writing in 1780, “ I profess myself (contrary, I sup-pose, to general opinion) a great admirer of its form and foliage. The yewis, of all other trees, the most tonsile. Hence all the indignities it suffers.We every where see it cut and metamorphosed into such a variety of defor-mities, that we are hardly brought to conceive it has a natural shape, or| thepower which other trees have of hanging carelessly and negligently. Yet ithas this power in a very eminent degree; and, in a state of nature, except inexposed situations, is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful evergreens we have.Indeed, I know not whether, all things considered, it is not superior to thecedar of Lebanon itself: I mean, to such meagre representations of thatnoble plant as we have in England. The same soil which cramps the cedaris congenial to the yew. It is but seldom, however, that we see the yew inperfection. In the New Forest it formerly abounded, but is now muchscarcer. But still, in many parts of the New Forest, some noble specimens ofthis tree are left. One I have often visited, which is a tree of peculiar beauty.It immediately divides into several massive limbs, each of which, hanging ingrand loose foliage, spreads over a large compass of ground; and yet the wholetree forms a close compact body ; that is, its boughs are not so separatedas to break into distinct parts. But, though we should be able to establishthe beauty of the yew with respect to form and foliage, there remains onepoint still which we should find it hard to combat. Its colour, unfortunately,gives offence. Its dingy funereal hue, people say, makes it only fit for achurchyard. An attachment to colour, as such, seems to me an indicationof false taste. Hence arise the numerous absurdities of gaudy decoration.In the same manner, a dislike to any particular colour shows a squeamish-ness, which should as little be encouraged. Indeed, when you have only onecolour to deal with, as in painting the wainscot of your room, the eye,