110 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



SECTION THIRD. 



I. 8. The Yews. Taxus. L. Order Taxacece of Lindley. 



By some authors, the yews, with several associated genera, 

 have been separated from the other evergreens, and made to 

 form a distinct family. They are distinguished by their fruits 

 not being collected in cones, but each ovule growing singly, 

 unprotected by hardened scales ; so that the mature fruit has 

 no resemblance to those of the true pines. 



They are natives of temperate climates in all the quarters of 

 the globe, and are occasionally found in hot latitudes ; but are 

 nowhere common. They are resinous, like the true pines, and 

 have similar properties. The wood of the European yew is 

 famous for its toughness, and, before the invention of fire-arms, 

 was highly valued as the best material for bows; according to 

 Spencer's descriptive line — 



" The eugh obedient to the bender's will ;" 



and the name taxus is supposed to be derived from the Greek 

 name for bow, toxon, (Togov.) The English name is the Saxon 

 Iw or Eow, hardly changed. 



The European yew, of which ours is considered a variety, is 

 remarkable for the hardness, weight, and extreme durability of 

 its wood, which is red and beautifully veined and knotted, and 

 valued by the turner and cabinet-maker. It is a very long-lived 

 tree, though of slow growth, of slower growth and greater du- 

 rability than any other European tree ; and it is one of those 

 trees which best support the opinion of physiologists, that exo- 

 genous trees are, by their nature, of indefinite growth ; that 

 they never die except by a violent death. A yew in Braburne 

 churchyard, in Kent, was nearly twenty feet in diameter ; and 

 there is one in the woods of Cliefden, " called the Hedron yew, 

 still in health and vigorous, which measures twenty -seven feet 

 in diameter."* The leaves of the yew are poisonous to cows 

 and horses, though eaten with impunity by many other ani- 

 mals. 



* Burnett ; Outlines, I, 506. 



