178 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



'A smoke-like dust arises from yew foliage in 

 spring when struck with a stick ; flower feels after 

 flower in the spring-time of love ; the bloom of the 

 yew is a kindling of the tips as with fine emerald 

 flame, which darkens again into the deep-black 

 green of the plant's perpetual mourning. Sorrow 

 exults over the tree as brightening for a very little 

 time and then passing into gloom again.' 1 



In the Himalayas 2 the yew clothes itself with 

 young brilliant green shoots in April and May, and 

 these young shoots appear a week after the flowering. 



The ' gloom ' of the tree appears again in The 

 Letters : 



' A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air ' ; 



and in Orcana : 



' In the yew-wood black as night.' 



In Amphion the trees dance : 



* Came wet-shot alder from the wave, 



Came yews, a dismal coterie, 

 Each pluck'd his one foot from the grave, 

 Poussetting with a sloe-tree.' 



It has been said, and is probably still supposed 

 by many, that all Tennyson's references to the yew 

 in relation to his friend's grave had their origin 

 in the existence of a tree or trees of this kind in 

 immediate proximity to it. But it is somewhat 



1 Bayne, quoted from Wace's Alfred Tennyson, p. 162. 



2 Brandis, Forest Flora of India, 



