Poisonous properties of the Yew 1 3 7 



sents it as destroying life by the odour of its flowers, 

 a statement as erroneous as it is fanciful. 



Virgil 1 alludes to the flowers as communicating 

 poisonous properties to Corsican honey. If the 

 yew existed in Corsica in Virgil's time, it must 

 have been for some reason or other eradicated, 

 for I have not met with a single tree of this 

 species in any part of the island. 



Pliny seems to have been well acquainted with 

 its noxious properties, for he asserts that arrows 

 were dipped in the juice to render them deadly, 

 and that poisons were named toxica, formerly taxica, 

 from the name of the tree taxiis. 



Statius mentions it as having poisonous pro- 

 perties : * Metuendaque succo Taxus.' 



Every part of the plant is more or less poisonous, 

 with the exception of the red mucilage surrounding 

 the ripe seeds. It is necessary to emphasise this, 

 as so many random and careless assertions have 

 been made on the subject. There is probably no 

 point on which so many errors and discrepancies 

 have arisen as on the question of the character of 

 \hs. fruit. This consists of a small nut surrounded 

 by red fleshy pulp, and having in its interior an 

 almond-flavoured kernel. The pulp is quite harm- 

 less in character, but it cannot be too widely known 

 that the nut is distinctly injurious, and in large 

 quantities poisonous. Numerous instances have 



1 Eel. ix. 30. 



