Holly, Yew and Box 



character of the Yew and its penchant for gloomy 

 surroundings, for he says : 



"Well do I know thee by thy trusty Yew, 

 Cheerless, unsocial plant, that loves to dwell, 

 Midst skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms ; 

 Where light-heeled ghosts, and visionary shades, 

 Beneath the wan cold moon (as fame reports), 

 Embody'd thick perform their mystic rounds 

 No other merriment, dull tree is thine." 



Branches of Yew have long been used as a 

 symbol of mourning, and in Plant Lore the 

 following passage occurs in relation to it : " The 

 Egyptians regarded it as a symbol of mourning, 

 and the idea descended to the Greeks and 

 Romans, who employed the wood for use in 

 funeral pyres. The Britons probably learned 

 from the Romans to attach a funereal signification 

 to the Yew, and inasmuch as it had been em- 

 ployed in ancient funeral rites, they regarded 

 the tree with reverence and probably looked 

 upon it as sacred on account of age and per- 

 petual verdure, for it was, like the Cypress, 

 considered as a symbol of the resurrection and 

 immortality." 



Pieces of Yew are frequently used in floral 

 tributes to the dead, and possibly this is the 

 reason why Dryden refers to it as "The Mourner 

 Yew " in the line 



" The mourner Yew and builder Oak were there." 



With reference to this subject Virgil 'is credited 



164 



.. 'i' ' ', . 



