THE YEW. 



IN strong contrast with all other trees indigenous 

 to the British islands, by reason of its poisonous 

 foliage, stands, the sombre yew, Taxus baccata. 

 Were not a single example of deleterious properties 

 to exist among our trees, it would at least be in 

 exception to the remarkable and significant rule 

 that everything in nature shall have its dreary side. 

 Thank God, it is left to our own option to turn 

 from the darkness to the light, and to shelter below 

 branches that are not only innocent but liberal, 

 Who would expect that among grasses, the sweet 

 pasture of innumerable kine, and in their larger 

 forms, the source of corn, there is yet one to be 

 found with the taint of poison in it; and that 

 abreast of the lilies there is a flower freighted with 



