PINE YEW. 267 



chiefly used as a nurse for other trees, sheltering them from 

 the rude blasts ; in Scotland it is a great and characteristic 

 ornament of wild rocky heights. Sir Walter Scott fitly terms 

 it the " Pride of the Highlands :" 



" Row, vassals, row, for the Pride of the Highlands ; 

 Stretch to your oars for the evergreen Pine ! " 



This tree is useful for timber and firewood, and a coarse tar 

 is drawn from it for common purposes. 



The best tar is from the Carolina Pine. The Spruce Fir 

 yields excellent pitch, and turpentine is drawn both from the 

 resin of the Alpine Fir and from that of the Larch. Lamp- 

 black is the soot of burnt tar. In Eussia roads are made of 

 the common Fir, and at Swedish funerals the way is strewed 

 with Fir sprigs. Masts of ships are made of this tree in every 

 country. The poor Laplanders are thankful to grind the cones 

 into flour and make bread of it, or to mix the ground bark 

 with oatmeal for pancakes. Beer is made from the twigs of 

 the Spruce Fir, and the Romans used to flavour their wine 

 with Fir cones. The inhabitants of the Oregon mountains use 

 the seed of a kind of native Pine as food ; the seed is large, 

 sweet, and nutritious. The victors at the Isthmian games 

 were crowned with Pine. 



We do not need to go into Scotland to find the Yew in its 

 glory (Taxus baccata, Plate X.V., jig. 8). It grows freely in 

 many of our Swaledale woods, and is particularly luxuriant 

 about Studley and Fountains Abbey. The Seven Sisters 

 Yews, close by the old abbey, are widely celebrated ; they are 

 supposed to have been full-grown trees in 1132, the date of the 

 building of the abbey, and several of them are standing still. 

 The ochre-coloured catkins of this tree are not attractive, but 

 its crimson berries are very beautiful, contrasting with the 

 deep green of the foliage. The hardness of the wood makes it 

 suitable for turnery articles, but its chief utility was in the 

 days of archery. English Yew bows won the victories of 

 Cressy and Poictiers; and in Switzerland the Yew is called 



