32 



of Hemp prepared in a peculiar way with sulphur, 

 which gives it a silky gloss. 



An oil is extracted from the seeds. The seeds 

 themselves are reckoned good food for poultry, and 

 are supposed to occasion hens to lay a greater quantity 

 of eggs. Small birds, in general, are very fond of 

 them, but they should be given to caged birds with 

 caution, and mixed with other seeds. 



A very singular effect is recorded on good autho- 

 thority, to have been sometimes produced by feeding 

 Bullfinches and Goldfinches on hemp-seed alone, or 

 in too great quantity: that of changing the red and 

 yellow on those birds to a total blackness. 



YEW. The proper wild situation of the common 

 Yew is in mountainous woods, and more particularly 

 in the clefts of high lime-stone rocks. It blossoms in 

 March and April, and the fruit ripens in autumn. 

 The Calyx, which is originally small, and of a green 

 colour, sustaining an oval nattish seed, at length be- 

 comes red, soft, and full of sweet slimy pulp ; which is 

 not unwholesome, though the leaves are very poi- 

 sonous. The wood, amongst our ancestors, was used 

 for making bows, and the tree is supposed to have 

 been planted in church-yards to foster its growth for 

 that purpose ; but I suspect, the same feelings that intro- 

 duced the Cyprus, in the East, to gloom the repositarie* 

 of the dead, had a principal share in this custom that 

 has prevailed in the northern nations. 



