1884-85.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Club. 225 



tree before the beginning of the Christian era. The same objec- 

 tion also applies to a belief mentioned in an old work by Robert 

 Turner, dated 1664, and entitled ' Botanologia,' which is yet worth 

 quoting. The author says : " The Yew is hot and dry, having 

 such attraction that if planted near a place subject to poysonous 

 vapours, its very branches will draw and imbibe them. For this 

 reason it was planted in churchyards, and commonly on the west 

 side, which was at one time considered full of putrefaction and 

 gross oleaginous gasses, exhaled from the graves by the setting 

 sun. . . . Wheresoever it grows," the old botanist adds, " it is 

 both dangerous and deadly to man and beast : the very lying 

 under its branches has been found hurtful, yet the growing of it 

 in churchyards is useful." We thus find that the Yew was early 

 regarded with a superstitious awe ; but the explanation here given 

 of its occurrence in churchyards is of couse fanciful, and character- 

 istic of the times. A very plausible reason which has been urged 

 is, that Yews were connected with the heathen worship of our 

 ancestors ; and that, according to the accommodating tactics of the 

 early Christian Church, of retaining and turning to its own use 

 what in the older ritual it was found impossible to remove, the 

 Yew under which the heathen rites were celebrated was permitted 

 to stand, and a Christian place of worship was built beside it. The 

 only objection to this theory is, that we have no certain evidence 

 connecting the Yew with the heathen worship of our island. It is 

 just possible that, seeing the Yew may be regarded as imdoubtedly 

 indigenous to Britain, and was at one time probably far more com- 

 mon than now, the ancient specimens found in churchyards may 

 owe their preservation to the accident or design of their having 

 been enclosed in this sacred place, while many of those scattered 

 over the face of the country had to succumb to the wasting effects 

 of time, or to the axe of the woodman. Its reputedly poisonous 

 properties, too, might often cause it to be levelled ; while its being 

 dioecious — having staminate and pistillate flowers on different trees 

 — would tend still further to lessen its numbers, as solitary forms 

 were left in isolated places. Whatever the reason may be, the fact 

 remains that many of the ancient Yews still surviving ay^e found 

 growing in churchyards. 



The subject of Yew-trees, as we have seen, is intimately con- 

 nected with that of archery : indeed, the generic name of the Yew 

 (Taxiis) is in all probability derived from the Greek to'^ov, a bow. 

 It may therefore be interesting to make a few remarks, in closing, 

 on the use of bows in our own country during historic times. The 

 first mention of archery in the statute-book is in the latter part of 

 the twelfth century, during the reign of William the Lion, where it 

 is explicitly stated that every man, unless mounted, was expected 

 to have a bow and arrows. In 1319 King Kobert the Bruce or- 



