THE YEW. 



Ta'xus bacca'ta L. 



For botanist, artist, poet, or moralist, few trees have 

 so unique an interest as the Yew. Its very 

 name is mysterious in its simple brevity, and has 

 been traced back to the sacred word PlIiT, Jehovah, 

 the Immortal. In Latin and Portuguese, iva ; in 

 Old German, Iwa ; in Welsh, yw ; in Anglo-Saxon, 

 eow; in Old English, iw, ew, ewe, eugh, and uhe ; 

 in French, if; in Swedish, id ; and in modern 

 German, Elbe, " we find," says Dr. Prior, " the Yew 

 so inextricably mixed up with the Ivy that, dis- 

 similar as are the two trees, there can be no doubt 

 that these names are in their origin identical." 



In the discussions as to the reasons for its fre- 

 quent presence in our churchyards several facts are 

 commonly overlooked : first, for example, that the 

 species is an indigenous one, and was formerly un- 

 doubtedly far more abundant in Britain and other 

 parts of Europe than at present; secondly, that the 

 trees may be older than the churches, and even than 

 Christianity itself; and thirdly, that in most cases 

 the venerable Yew is on the south or south-west side 

 of the church. 



Its hard, durable, reddish wood presents 



characters that enable us readily to recognise it 



in the peat-beds of prehistoric times. In the 



bogs of Ireland, Scotland, and Cumberland, in the 



31 81 



