122 THE YEW. 



death ? Such, however, is the fact; and darnel and 

 colchicum are but illustrations and prefigurements, 

 in their respective provinces, of the mournful truth 

 that conies out so strongly in the consideration of 

 the yew. Not that the berries are poisonous, for 

 these, though viscid and with no fine flavour to 

 recommend them, are eaten with impunity; it is in 

 the leaves that the hurtful juices are contained, after 

 the same manner as in the laurel, the little plums 

 produced by which are innocuous, though extract 

 prepared from the leaves is speedily fatal. Probably 

 it is in some measure from this poisonous quality 

 that the yew has been so often associated with death 

 and churchyards : 



" Cheerless, unsocial plant, that loves to dwell 

 Mid skulls and coffins, epitaphs and tombs." 



Remember, however, that it is man who has placed 

 it in such localities. Nature gives the yew a 

 very different abiding-place from the cemetery ; 

 and rightly viewed and understood, perhaps the 

 yew may prove after all, notwithstanding its pos- 

 session of deadly sap, to be a tree that should con- 

 tribute ideas rather of cheerfulness than of mourn- 

 ing. Upon rugged limestone scars and cliffs, 

 where nothing else, save a little ivy, can establish 

 anchorage, the yew is often seen clinging, as if 

 bound to the rock with clamps of iron. Well-nigh 

 flattened against the perpendicular face of the 



