ii070 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICK'lURI. PARI' fll. 



bite of vipers. Plutarch says that it is venomous when it is in flower, because 

 the tree is then full of sap ; and that its shade is fatal to all who sleep under 

 it. Pliny adds to the above, that the berries of the male yew are a mortal 

 poison, particularly in Spain ; and that persons have died, who have drunk 

 wine out of casks made of the wood. (Lib. xvi. cap. 10.) Also, that, accord- 

 ing to Sextius, in Arcadia it was death to lie beneath the shade of the yew. 

 In more modern times, Mathiolus and J. Bauhin were the first to prove, by 

 positive facts, the poisonous nature of the leaves of the yew ; but Father 

 Schoot, a Jesuit, asserted that, if the branches of the tree were tlipped in 

 stagnant water, their poison became neutralised. Gerard and L'Ohel soon 

 afterwards discovered that the fruit of the yew might be eaten with perfect 

 safety, and that there vvas no danger in sleeping beneath the shade of the tree. 

 The yew was formerly much valued in Britain, on account of the use made 

 of its wood for bows, this weapon being that principally used by the ancient 

 Britons in all their wars. It was fatal to several British kings; viz., Harold, 

 at the battle of Hastings; William Rufus, in the New Forest; and Richard 

 Coeur de Lion, at Limoges, in France. It was to the skill of the English with 

 the long bow that the conquest of Ireland by Henry II., in 1 172, is attri- 

 buted; and afterwards the victories of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt. In 

 1397, Richard II., holding a parliament in a temporary building, on account 

 of the wretched state of Westminster Hall, surrounded his hut with 4,000 

 Cheshire archers, armed with tough yew bows, to insure the freedom of 

 debate. {Pennanfs London, ed. 3., p. 39.) Statutes were passed by many 

 of our early British sovereigns forbidding the exportation of yew wood, and 

 obliging all Venetian and other carrying ships to import 10 bow-staves with 

 every butt of Malmsey or other wine; and, by the 5th of Edward IV., every 

 Englishman dwelling in Ireland was expressly ordered to have an English 

 bow of his own height, made of yew, wych hazel, ash, or awburne; that is, 

 according to some, I'aubour, or the laburnum, which was as much used on 

 the Continent for making bows as the yew was in Britain (see p. 590.) ; or, 

 according to others, the alder. " As for brasell, elme, wych, and ashe," says 

 Roger Ascham, "experience doth prove them to be mean for bowes; and so 

 to conclude, ewe of all other things is that whereol' perfite shootinge would 

 have a bowe made." The last statute that appears in the books, respecting 

 the use of yew for bows, is the Kith of EHzabeth, c. 14., which directs that 

 bow-staves shall be imported into England from the Hansc Towns, and other 

 places. In Switzerland, where the yew tree is scarce, it was formerly forbid- 

 den, under heavy penalties, to cut down the tree for any other ])urpose than to 

 make bows of the wood. The Swiss mountaineers call it William's tree, in 

 memory of William Tell. 



The custom of planting yew trees in churchyards has never been satisfac- 

 torily ex|)lained. Some have sup[)osed that the yew trees were placed near 

 the churches for the purpose of affording branches on Palm Sunday ; others, 

 that they might be safe there from cattle, on account of their value for making 

 bows; others, that they were emblematical of silence and death ; and others, 

 that they were useful for the purpose of affording shade or shelter to those 

 who came too soon for tiie service. The subject has occupied the attention 

 of various writers ; of whom the last who has taken a comprehensive view of 

 it is J. E. Bowman, Es(|., F.L.S., from whose article, in the JMagnzinc of 

 Natural Ifixlorij, vol. i., new series, we give the following abridged abstract : — 

 •' Many reasons have been assigned for tiie frequent occurrence of the yew in 

 our churchyards: but it seems most natural and simple to believe that, being 

 indisputably indigenous, and being, from its |)erennial verdure, its longevity, 

 and the dural)ility of its wood, at once an emblem and a specimen of innnor- 

 tality, its branches wotdd be emjjloyed by our pagiui ancestors, on their first 

 arrival here, as the best substitute for the cypress, to deck the graves of the 

 dead, anti for other sacrcul |)urj)oses. As it is the policy of innovators in 

 religion to avoid unnecessary interference with matters not essential, these, 

 with many other customs of heathen origin, would be retained and engrafted 



