Nat. Ord. (Natural Order) Taxace�. Lin. Syst. (Linnean System) Mon�cia, Monadelphia. The European Yew is a slow-growing, evergreen tree, which often, when full grown, measures forty feet in height, and a third more in the diameter of its branches. The foliage is flat, linear, and is placed in two rows, like that of the Hemlock tree, though much darker in color. The flowers are brown or greenish, and inconspicuous, but they are succeeded by beautiful scarlet berries, about half or three-fourths of an inch in diameter, which are open at the end, where a small nut or seed is deposited. These berries have an exquisitely delicate, waxen appearance, and contribute highly to the beauty of the tree. The growth of this tree, even in its native soil, is by no means rapid. In twenty years, says Loudon, it will attain the height of fifteen or eighteen feet, and it will continue growing for one hundred years; after which it becomes comparatively stationary, but will live many centuries.
