HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



101 



an approximate idea can be arrived at in the case 

 of very aged yews that have become resuscitated, 

 and thus have a claim to be considered as the 

 emblem of immortality, -which seems a probable 

 cause of their being planted in churchyards ; for 

 strange to say, terrible as were English archers 

 with the " bended yew," they mostly used foreign 

 wood for their bow-staves, as being better seasone'd, 

 and more fitted for military purposes, though Eng- 

 lish-grown yew did for the chase and home practice, 

 every boy being taught to bend the bow, as Bishop 

 Latimer tells us in his quaint sermons preached 

 before King Edward VI. By the process of re- 

 suscitation that I am about to describe, a yew-tree 

 may exist an indefinite time,"and there is no limit to 

 its existence if not blown down. 



Fig-. eg. Resuscitated Yew at Little Malvern. 



When an aged yew gets into a state of decay, 

 and is unable to keep up life by an exogenous 

 growth of regular annual rings, layers of alburnum 

 descend from above to the ground; new wood is 

 formed, and the old bole is thus actually enveloped 

 and preserved, while from this new wood branches 

 and foliage arise, and the old tree assumes a juve- 

 nescent aspect, except where the old decaying bole 

 is visible before it is quite entombed by its living 

 offspring. I send a sketch of an old yew standing 

 in the Priory churchyard at Little Malvern, in 

 which this resuscitating process is well shown, the 

 new wood (which is dark) having almost covered 

 the original bole, while the old, dead, and broken 

 branches stand out in a curious and remarkable 



manner. I have noticed a similar appearance in 

 many other ancient churchyard yews, and some 

 attempt at this renovation may be observed in 

 almost every very old yew, although of no extra- 

 ordinary size. 



Although in the majority of cases where yews 

 appear in churchyards, they were doubtless planted 

 at or after the consecration of the sacred edifices, 

 yet it may well be thought that occasionally the 

 site for a church was chosen on account of the 

 proximity of a fine yew at the spot. Especially 

 might this ibe the case where several yews were 

 located, as is actually recorded with regard to the 

 Fountains Abbey yews in Yorkshire. Leland also 

 mentions no less than thirty-nine yews as standing 

 in his time (in the reign of Henry VIII.) in the 

 cemetery of Strata Florida Abbey, in Cardiganshire, 

 and probably there before the abbey was founded. 

 Of these, however, only three now remain, and one of 

 these when I saw it formed a vegetable ruin divided 

 into two parts, denoting extreme old age. The 

 Welsh seem to have been particularly devoted to 

 the yew, for many of their churchyards are gloomy 

 with numbers of them, for they were not merely 

 contented^ with the single "sable yew" that charac- 

 terizes an English country churchyard. The pre- 

 sence of the yew with its perpetual verdure and 

 enduring vitality symbolized the everlasting life 

 that was to succeed the mortality of the grave, 

 and yew-branches were also used in processions of 

 the Church and at funerals. This sufficiently ac. 

 counts for the partiality of the Welsh to the yew 

 {yw, ever-living), for they were never celebrated 

 for the use of the bow in their intestine and pre- 

 datory warfare. Edwin Lees, F.L.S. 



THE HISTORY OF OUR COMMON 

 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



iBy H. G. Glasspoole. 

 No. T. The Potato {continued). 



NO plant of any description has exercised so 

 great an influence on the moral, physical, and 

 political conditions of our country as the potato. 



In 1811 and 1812, the high price of corn and all 

 breadstuffs caused the cultivation of this root to be 

 greatly extended ; and indeed some of the political 

 economists of thoso days went so far as to advise 

 the Legislature to recommend that every farmer 

 should grow one acre of potatoes for every hundred 

 acres occupied ; but although this was not carried 

 out, the cultivation continued rapidly to increase 

 in all parts of the United Kingdom. That extra- 

 ordinary man Mr. Cobbett stigmatized the potato 

 as "the accursed root," and foretold the dis 

 appointment that would in course of time arise 

 from its too extensive cultivation ; and his pre- 



