The Yew is a native of mountainous woods, but has been planted largely in other situations. It is an evergreen tree, with a dark brown, fibrous bark; and although it never grows to any great height--seldom exceeding fifty feet, it often has a girth of from twenty to thirty feet, and reaches an age of fifteen hundred or two thousand years. The leaves are very crowded, about one inch in length, and arranged in two rows along the stem. They are linear, pointed, of a dark glossy green above, and lighter below. The flowers are small, sessile, situated in the axils of the leaves, and appear in March or April. The male flower consists of from five to eight anthers, below which is a whorl of overlapping scales. The female is much smaller, and is composed of a fleshy disc with a small ovule at the top and scales below. After fertilisation the ovule enlarges into a green seed, and the disc, which almost completely surrounds it, develops into a roundish, sweet, fleshy cup, about half an inch in diameter, of a bright rose-red colour and of a beautiful waxy appearance. The leaves of the Yew are poisonous, but the fruits are quite harmless. A variety of this tree occurs of a pyramidal form, with scattered leaves and an oblong fruit. It should be noted that while the male and female flowers of the Yew generally grow on separate trees, the both are occasionally found on the same tree. VII WAYSIDES AND WASTES IN SPRING In the present chapter we shall consider a number of wild flowers that are to be found by the waysides, including banks and hedgerows, and in waste places, during the spring months. Our first example is the Celandine (_Chelidonium majus_), of the Poppy family (order _Papaveraceæ_), generally spoken of as the _Greater_ Celandine in order to distinguish it from the Lesser Celandine (p. 108), which belongs to the _Ranunculaceæ_. This plant is moderately common in shady hedgerows and waste places, grows to a height of from one to two feet, and flowers from May to July or August. It has a yellow, pungent, poisonous sap. The leaves are pinnate, with an odd leaflet at the tip, of a glaucous green colour; and all the leaflets are bluntly lobed. The flowers are yellow, from three-quarters to an inch in diameter, and are arranged in long-stalked umbels. As in the poppies, there are two sepals which fall early, and four petals which are crumpled in the bud. There are numerous stamens, attached below the superior ovary; and the latter ripens into a pod-like capsule of one chamber, about an inch and a half in length, which splits, when ripe, into two valves.