341 



THE YEW. 



TAXUS BACCATA. 



Natural Order TAXACE.E. 



Class DlflECIA. Order MONADELPHIA. 



THE Yew-tree, " neither verdant, nor graceful, but gloomy, 

 terrible, and sapless," to judge from Pliny's description, is 

 a tree of evil omen. Not only were the berries deemed 

 poisonous, but vessels made of the wood were said to im- 

 part the same property to wine kept in them, and it was 

 considered more than hazardous to sleep or take food under 

 the shade of its branches. The very name for the poison 

 with which arrows were armed, toxica, was, according to 

 the same author, a corruption of taxica, from taxus, the 

 Latin name of the tree. Virgil agrees with Pliny in con- 

 demning the Yew ; he calls it a noxious tree, and recom- 

 mends that it should not be allowed to stand near bee- 

 hives. Other authors, ancient and modern, join in assign- 

 ing to it properties deadly to various kinds of animals. 

 No wonder then that the frequent appearance of the Yew 

 in churchyards should have suggested the idea that it was 

 planted in such situations as an emblem of death, and a fit 

 shelter for the dead. That the Yew was commonly planted 

 by our forefathers in churchyards there can be no doubt, 

 for there are yet in existence a vast number of these trees so 

 planted many centuries since ; but there is far greater pro- 

 bability that at the period when crosses were erected in 

 these sacred spots as emblems of the victory over death 

 achieved by the Author of our faith, the Yew-tree was 

 stationed not far off, to symbolize, by its durability and 

 slowly altering features, the patient waiting for the resur- 

 rection, by those who committed the bodies of their friends 

 to the ground in hope. Heathens, indeed, might with 

 propriety have selected the most deadly of trees to repre- 



