DIOECIA. 25 



ripens in autum. The Calyx, which is originally 

 small, and of a green colour, sustaining an oval flat- 

 tish seed, at length becomes red, soft, and full 

 of sweet slimy pulp, not unwholesome, though 

 the leaves are very poisonous. 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 introduced the Cypress in the East 

 to gloom the repositories of the dead, had a principal 

 share in this custom, which has prevailed in the nor- 

 thern nations j it has, however, been thought to be a 

 symbol of immortality, the tree being of so lasting a 

 quality, and always green. 



The Yew, though of slow growth, sometimes ar- 

 rives at a very considerable size. Pennant mentions 

 one in Fontingal church-yard, in the Highlands of 

 Scotland, whose ruined trunk measured 56^ feet in 

 circumference 



Camden tells a story of a Yew that was held in 

 such veneration in Yorkshire, in consequence of the 

 death of a Virgin, whose head was said to have been 

 hung upon it, by a profligate priest, suspended by the 

 hair, that an obscure village, called Horton, became so 

 great a resort of strangers from all parts, that buildings 

 were yearly increased for their accommodation, and 

 thus originated the great manufacturing town of Hali- 

 fax, the derivation of which is, Holy Hair. Fax, 

 Camden says, is now used by the English, on the 

 other side of Trent, to signify hair: Fax, is hair in 

 the Saxon language. , 



