mentioned by Shakspeare. 95 
ughs wave over the hearse, and its sprigs are introduced 
into the coffin. Shakspeare, in his Twelfth Night, directs the 
shroud to be stuck with it. 
«« My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, 
Oh, prepare it.’’—Act i. sc. 4. 
_ The chemical principle upon which depends the incorrup- 
tibility of this benutiful wood, and which renders the tree all 
_ but immortal, is probably the same with its poisonous quality, 
and which rendered it an important ingredient in the witch’s 
cauldron: 
«* Gall of goat, and slips of yew, 
Stiver’d in the moon’s eclipse.’’—Macbeth, act iv. sc. 1. 
_ Tunderstand, insome parts of England, it is the custom as 
soon as a person dies, to sponge the corpse over with infusion 
of its fresh leaves: this preserves the body from putrefaction, 
and preserves it for many weeks. Professor Martyn describes 
the case of a young lady, who was accidentally poisoned from 
drinking this infusion by mistake, instead of rue tea, as she 
was advised. The result was, that although dead, she retained 
the bloom of her countenance, so that her attendants believed 
her to be only in a trance: she was accordingly kept a long 
while uninterred, and was finally buried without any appear- 
ance of putrefaction. ‘The importance of this wood in ancient 
warfare has suggested the epithet of double-fatal, used by our 
author in King Richard IL,, act iii. sc. 2. 
** The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows 
Of double-fatal yew against thy state.” 
- Some have supposed that it was on this account so highly 
venerated by our ancestors, and planted by them in our 
ehurchyards; but I consider this opinion to be unfounded. 
Many of the yew-trees of this country are certainly 3000 years 
of age, and I believe that most of those in our churchyards, 
which are four feet thick, and some are from eight to twelve, 
must be older than the introduction of Christianity into this 
kingdom ; but the demonstration and the store of facts which 
corroborate and prove my position, are too copious to detail 
in this place. 
Plantage. “ As true as steel as plantage to the moon.” 
Can this be the Alisma? or is it one of the Lunarias or 
moonworts? I suppose it is the Alisma plantago. The dedi- 
cation of this herb to the moon, or Diaaa, from its temperature 
being considered cold, and from its influence upon hydrophobic 
patients and lunatics, and also from its seeds being emmena- 
ogue, leads me to conjecture that this must be the species 
chosen by our poet as the emblem of fidelity. The word 
a 
