216 THE BEAUTIES OF BRITISH TREES. [Jan. 



airy larch. In the clamp hollows and rocky ravines, \vhere %Yater 

 trickles and streamlets murmur, many kinds of feni grow. In 

 some spots several kinds of Ijuckler fern, beside harts-tongue, common 

 polypody, black maiden-hair spleenwort, and the hard male, and 

 lady fern may be found grouped together. l]y the side of the peaty 

 ditches, the royal fern unfolds his fronds, and in the damp crevices 

 of the rocks the some\vhat rare holly fern may sometimes be found. 



In autumn, from the time when the leaves of the trees and shrubs 

 look as if a slight shower of golden drops had fallen upon them 

 until they become shimmering sheets of orange, red, and brown, the 

 woods and hedges lack no charm. 



Ere man}' years, doubtless, the sylvan features of this district 

 ■will become greatly altered. The oak will be succeeded by rapid 

 growing conifers. Pines will animate the winter landscape, and 

 trees able to withstand the wind bedeck places now bare. 



GlLLIE-XA-CoiLLE. 



THE BEAUTIES OF BRITISH TREES. 



{Continued from Vol XL p. 19.) 



THE YEW {Taoms haccatu). — For botanist, artist, poet, or moralist 

 few trees have so unique an interest as the yew. Wearing 

 the serious aspect of age even in youth, its sombre foliage, massive 

 trunk, and rugged bark when of mature age, form a far more striking 

 emblem of immortality than the gras.sliopper of Tithonus. Its very 

 name is mysterious in its simple brevity, and by some is even traced 

 back to the sacred name i^l'T', Jehovah, the Immortal. In Latin and 

 in Portuguese iva, in Old German iwa, in Welsh yn\ in Anglo-Saxon 

 cow, iir Old English iv:, cu\ ewe, cugh, and ulic, in French if, in 

 Swedish icl, and in modern German cibe, " we find," says Dr. Prior, 

 " the yew so inextricably mixed up with the ivy that, dissimilar as 

 are the two trees, there can be no doubt tliat these names are in 

 their origin identical." It is noteworthy that both plants are ever- 

 green and of exceptionally dark shades of green. 



In the frequent discussions as to the reasons for its frequent 

 presence in our churchyards, several facts are commonly overlooked ; 

 first, for example, that the species is an indigenous one, and was 

 formerly without doubt far more abundant in Britain and in other 

 parts of Europe than at present ; secondly, that the trees are often 

 older than the churches, and very probably even than Christianity 

 itself; and, thirdly, that in most cases the venerable yew is on the south 



