204 CONIFERS— FIR TRIBE 



bowl made of its wood. Shakspere calls it the "Double Fatal Yew," and 

 even in later days, poets, influenced by their classic associations, have 

 described it as injurious. Both in ancient and modern times, the plant has 

 been used medicinally ; and even within the present century, an Italian 

 phj^sician has stated that Yew-leaves, when administered in small doses, 

 have a similar power to the Digitalis, in reducing the circulation ; and that 

 its juice, like that of the foxglove, would prove fatal if taken largely. 

 Plutarch and Pliny both thought the coral fruits poisonous ; and M. Decan- 

 dolle and some other botanists regard them as dangerous ; though Dr. 

 Lindley considers that the seeds which lie in the scarlet cup are the noxious 

 part. Sir J. E. Smith says that he has, in boyhood, eaten these sweet and 

 juicy fruits without experiencing any ill-effects ; and the author of these 

 pages ate them in childhood, year after year, and in great numbers, without 

 injury ; but the bitter seeds within were of course rejected. The leaves, 

 especially those of the young shoots, are certainly, under some circumstances, 

 poisonous to animals. Professor Wiborg, of Copenhagen, is of opinion that 

 they are so only when eaten without the admixture of any other food ; but 

 that when eaten with three or four times the quantity of wholesome vege- 

 tables, they are innocuous. Other botanists believe that they are poisonous 

 only when in a withered state. 



The Yew was formerly much used for hedges, and also for clipping into 

 various forms, as cones, spires, and pyramids, birds and animals. Even yet 

 there exist many trees familiar to us from earliest days, as uncouth repre- 

 sentations of peacocks, while others still show a well-clipped surface, cut into 

 a globular form. Professor Burnet, writing of two trees of this kind in 

 Bedfont Churchyard, says they have been thus disfigured for upwards of a 

 century and a half, by the annual clipping of their shoots ; they have no 

 chance of escape from this condition, some eccentric person having left an 

 annuity that they may be thus clipped for ever. 



Many venerable and picturesque Yews interest us the more, from their 

 connection with history. Such are the magnificent trees near Fountains 

 Abbey, beneath whose shadow the monks are said to have taken shelter 

 while rearing the monastery. One of these trees, which is fifty feet high, is 

 proved from old records to be upwards of eight hundred years old. Such, 

 too, is the Ankerwyke Yew, near Staines, supposed to be upwards of a 

 thousand years of age, on which the assembled barons might have looked 

 when the Great Charter was signed, and beneath whose shadow Henry VIII. 

 is believed to have held tryst with the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. 



The Yew is a valuable tree. Its wide evergreen foliage is a shelter for 

 birds, when shelter is scarce, and many birds eat the berries. The wood is 

 hard, close-grained, elastic, and durable, and forms excellent timber ; while 

 the Yew-wood table is far more beautiful than that made of mahogany, and 

 various ornamental articles are cut from the beautifully-veined trunk and 

 root. As it will outlast almost every other wood, it is well fitted for piles, 

 posts, and other objects which are exposed to damp and weather ; and it is 

 a common saying in the New Forest, that " a post of yew will last longer 

 than an iron one.' 



