io8 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Pliny's assertion, and says that the ill repute it 

 bore for drinking-vessels had no foundation, and 

 maintains that the toxic quality was in the liquor 

 and not in the wood. In this he is partly right 

 and partly wrong. No doubt, in most instances, 

 the poison was in the liquor, but it is also true that 

 the wood is poisonous, and it is possible that wine, 

 especially if it had stood for some time in a new 

 vessel, might extract sufficient poison to be in- 

 jurious. Water would not extract the poison, and 

 any noxious effect would disappear after frequent 

 use as a wine-vessel. At the present day it is used 

 as the favourite material for making cups, etc., in 

 the Pyrenees. 



Miss Betham Edwards writes : * ' These folks 

 being great water-drinkers, will have their water 

 in a state of great perfection. Some native 

 genius long ago invented a vessel which answers 

 the requirements of the most fastidious. This is 

 a pail-shaped receptacle of yewen wood, bound 

 with brass bands, both inner and outer parts being- 

 kept exquisitely clean. Water in such vessels 

 remains cool throughout the hottest hours of the 

 hottest summer, and the wood is exceedingly 

 durable, standing wear and tear, it is said, hundreds 

 of years. The turning and encasing of yewen 

 wood and brass-bound water-jars is a flourishing 

 manufacture at Osse.' 



1 France of To-day ', 1892. 



