THE ONLY REMAINING YEW FOREST.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10671, 21 January 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE ONLY REMAINING YEW FOREST.

• A bit of primeval yew forest is still to W found in the Bavarian highlands of' Germany. This tree whose wood sought in the days when the crossbow was still a weapon of warfare, was in the Middle Ages widely distributed nil over Germany, :but is to-day almost extinct, and -even most German foresters know it only as m verv rare tree, individual specimens of winch are- here and there preserved. There is, however, a tiny yew woodland still in existence m the rian mountains, near the village ot ViWzell and not far from the royal city of Munich itself. It covers an area of half a mile square. Here alon" the dried-out lake ot Zdl grow | the last of the yew trees. It is primeval forest land, and according to a recent count comprises 843 larW and 1456 small trees The larger trees are at least, two hundred to Tivc hundred years old, and perhaps hundreds of years more. The smaller trees are all under fifty years. The largest of the trees at a. height ot tour feet from the ground, has a circunir ference of eight feet eight inches, and cmite a number of them are more than six feet in circumference, and have heights varying from 50 to 60 feet.