T A X 



1-JO 



\ \ 



Portugal. 



Crown renU 

 Direct taxes 

 Indirect taxes 



Various rents 



Total 



. 



H'4 10 



71 1* 

 1,070,71 



I.U.IUO 7 



. 2330366 9 



Further interesting particulars concerning the several 

 of European Slav* will be found in tin- Parlia- 

 mentary Paper. No. i7. of lS4i ordered by the House of 

 ('(millions to be printed, 3rd May, Isrj. 



TA\(i'I)H.'M, from tuj-us. t'he name of a genus of 

 plant.-, belonging to the natural order Conit'cr.i. The plants 

 ot this cenus are monoecious. The male flowers are ar- 

 langed in catkins of a roundish form, disposed in race- 

 mose panicles; the pollen of each flower is contained in 

 live cases, which are attached to the scale at its inner 

 face. The female flowers are also arranged in small 

 round catkins two or three of which are attached near 

 to the base of the spike of the catkins of male flowers. 

 The ovules are two in each receptacle. The fruit is a 

 globose strobule, with peltate angled scales ; the seeds are 

 angled with very thick integuments; the embryo, with 

 from 5 to 9 cotyledons. The leaves arc linear, disposed in 

 two ranks, and" are deciduous. This genus has been dis- 

 tinguished from Cuprcssus principally on account of the 

 arrangement of its male catkins in racemose panicles, 

 the small number of flowers in the female catkins, and 

 the numbers of cotyledons possessed by the embryo. 



This genus is we'll known through the Taxodium disti- 

 rhiun. deciduous Cypress, a tree that was introduced into 

 Europe from North" America as early as 1640. This spe- 

 cie* is characterized by two-rowed, flat, deciduous leaves ; 

 leafless and panicled male flowers, and somewhat globose 

 strobils. It is an elegant tree, and attains a height of 

 120 feet in its native soil. The first plant that is men- 

 tioned as existing in this country was grown in South 

 Lambeth, and was raised from seeds brought from Vir- 

 ginia. Since then it has been introduced in various parts 

 of Great Britain, and many fine specimens are now to be 

 found. In its native districts in North America it is 

 exceedingly abundant, and in many parts, as in Louisiana, 

 it entirely occupies thousands of acres of the low grounds, 

 which are thence called ryprifres, or cypress swamps. It 

 is found in Delaware, on the banks of the Indian River, 

 in 38 50' N. lat., which is its northern boundary, and, pro- 

 ivedinc: southward, it is abundant in the swamps of Vir- 

 ginia, the Carolina.*, Georgia, and the Floridas. 



In America, where the tree grows, its wood is used for 

 all the purposes to which timber is applied. In 1819, 

 according to Michaux, almost all the houses of New 

 Orleans were constructed of the wood of this tree. It 

 is considered very durable, and is employed where this 

 quality is an object. In Louisiana it is used for making 

 the masts and sides of vessels, and also canoes, which are 

 fashioned out of a single trunk, and are said to be more 

 durable than when made from any other wood. The bark 

 of the tree exudes a resin of an agreeable odour and a red 

 colour which is used by the negroes for dressing wounds, 

 but it cannot be obtained in sufficient quantities to consti- 

 tute an article of commerce. The roots of this tree are 

 remarkable for the production of knobs or protubci 

 which are sometimes five or six, and, according to some 

 observers, many more feet in circumference. They have 

 generally a conical form, and are hollow inside, with a 

 covering of red bark, similar to that of the roots. In 

 America, they are called c\ press knees,' and are used by 

 the negroes for bee-hives. 



In the cultivation of the deciduous cypress, a rich moist 

 soil must be selected in alow situation. It may In- in- 

 creased by seeds from the imported cones, or it may be 

 propagated by cuttings, planted in autumn in a moist 

 sand or heath soil, situated ina shady damp place. Layers 

 also, when put down in moist soil, will root freely the tirst 

 year. 



During cultivation, this tree K exceedingly prone to 

 sport, co that no two individuals have precisely the same 

 appearance. On this account, a number of varieties have 

 been named. The most common is the T. d. patent, which 

 hag horizontal branches. Another, with pendulous branches, 

 is known a T. d. pendulum ; a third, with pendulous first- 



vear's shoots, as 7'. (/. tiulan*. Othci 

 iia\c ' .bed. but lire i" i or culth . 



For further information on this i;i mis, see London's. .\,\>. 

 et Knit. Iliit..' \ol. iv. 



TAXI S ln.i I/A-, Latin , the name of a genus of p' 

 the type of the natural order Taxace.c. Thi- 

 monoecioiis ; the perianth of the ba - is single 



at the ba.se ; the stamens are numerous, with p- 

 anthers (i-s-celled. the cells opening beneath. The fertile 

 flowers have a single, urceolate, scaly perianth ; no style : 

 and a fleshy drupaceous fruit, perforated at the extremity. 

 The spec ics ,,t this genus an- i MMLTCCH lives, v.iih nume- 

 rous, mostly linear, entire leaves. They arc nati\. 

 Europe and North America. 



T. /Hiri-ii/ti, Common Yew. ha.s its leaves vi-ianked, 

 crowded, linear, flat, with the flower-, axillary, sessile : the 

 receptacle of the barren flowers globular. The common 

 u-w is well known : it is indigenous to most part> of Eu- 

 rope, and is found in every part of Hritain and Ireland. Il 

 is seldom seen growing in company with it" own sp- 

 but alone, or with other species of plants. 



The yew is a low tree, the trunk rising three or four 

 feet from the ground, and then sending out num. 

 spreading branches, forming a head of dense foliage, which. 

 when full grown, may be sometimes 30 or 40 feet high. 

 It is of slow growth, attaining under favourable cii- 

 stances a height of 6 or H feet in ten \< a P., and 15 let t in 

 twenty years. The tallest yew in England is in the 

 churchyard at Harlington, near Hounslow, which is .">s 

 feet high. A tree continues growing for about one hun- 

 dred years; it mostly ceases to LT.I.V at that age, but will 

 live for many centuries. The yew-trees at present 

 ing at Fountain's Abbey in Yorkshire are supposed to ha\c 

 attained their full growth when the abbey was erected in 

 1132. 



The remarkable characters and properties of the yew- 

 have drawn towards it at all times much attention. f)io- 

 scorides, Pliny, and Theophrastus mention its poisonous 

 properties. Caesar (Bell. G<i//.. \i. 31 relates that Cativol- 

 cus, king of the Eburones, committed suicide by swallowing 

 the juice of the yew. Plutarch says that its fruit is poison- 

 ous, and that its shade is fatal to all who sleep under it. 

 This is also stated by Pliny ; but there must have' been some 

 mistake on some of these points, as it is now well known 

 that the fruit of the yew may be eaten wifh impunity, and 

 that its shade is not more deadly than that of other 

 trees. 



The yew appears to have been employed from the 

 earliest times in the manufacture of bows, and was used 

 for this purpose by the nations of antiquity. The bows 

 used by the English previous to the introduction of gun- 

 powder were made of \ ew. and there arc many alii. 

 amongst English poets to this use of its wood. The 

 battles of Cressyand Poictiers were gained by the English 

 vcw-bows, and the same weapon was used in the wars of 

 York and Lancaster. In the course of time the supply 

 of yew was deficient, and other woods came to be used ; 

 but the introduction of gunpowder soon after put a step 

 to the use of the bow as a weapon of war altogether. 

 Bows are now seldom made of the yew, various ornamental 

 woods frOB South America being preferred. In Swit/er- 

 land the \ f\\ t :e is called William's tree, because the 

 bow of William 1'cll is said toha\e been made of that wood. 

 The yew is a common ornament of the churchyard. The 

 origin of the practice of planting this tree in such situations 

 is not at all clearly made out. Their dark foliage and 

 p>sed deadly shade may have pointed them out as the tit 

 emblems of silence and death. Mr. Bowman (Magas. <>f 

 .\nl. Jlif/., vol. i.) observes that ' it seems most natural 

 and most simple to believe, that being indisputably indi- 

 genous, and being, from its perennial \ - ity, 

 and the durability of its wood, at once an emblem and a 

 specimen of immortality,- its blanches would be cmp!< 

 by our pagan ancestors, on their first arrival here, as the 

 best substitute for the cypress to deck the graves of the 

 dead, and for other sacred purposes.' 



The yew used to be frequently planted in gardens as an 

 ornament, on account of the facility witli which it in: 

 cut into various fantastic shapes. During the past century 

 it was not uncommon to meet with these trees cut into the 

 forms of balls, pyramids, beasts, birds, and men ; but this 

 practice havinir fallen under the well-merited censure nf 



Pope and other writers, only a remnant of it here and 



