348 THE YEW. 



form of membranous scaly buds, from the centre of each of 

 which protrudes a slender column, terminating in a tuft of 

 stamens. The fertile flower resembles a minute acorn, the 

 cup of which swells, and when ripe has the appearance of 

 red cornelian, enclosing an oval brown nut, the summit of 

 which is uncovered. These berries, if berries they may be 

 called, droop when ripe, and contain a sweet glutinous 

 juice. They are of a mawkish, disagreeable taste, but are 

 eaten with impunity by children, and greedily devoured by 

 various birds and insects. The nut contains a kernel, 

 which is eatable, and has an agreeable flavour, like that of 

 the Stone Pine. The leaves are poisonous, though to 

 what extent is a disputed question ; but of this there can 

 be no doubt, that their effects on the human frame are 

 deadly, and that to give them to cattle is a perilous experi- 

 ment. Instances are on record of cattle eating them with 

 impunity, mixed with other fodder; but, whether in a 

 green or half-dry state, they are highly dangerous. It 

 appears from all accounts that the poison is more virulent 

 in the young shoots than in any other part of the tree, but 

 that it exists in greater or less quantities both in the fully 

 expanded leaves and in the green bark. 



The wood of the Yew, London says, is hard, compact, 

 of a fine and close grain, flexible, elastic, splitting readily, 

 and incorruptible. It is of a fine orange red, or deep 

 brown; and the sap wood, which does not extend to a 

 very great depth, is white and also very hard. The fine- 

 ness of its grain is owing to the thinness of its annual 

 layers, two hundred and eighty of these being sometimes 

 found in a piece not more than twenty inches in diameter. 



" The Yew was formerly what the Oak is now, the basis 

 of our strength, Of it the old English yeoman made his 

 long-bow, which, he vaunted, nobody but an Englishman 

 could bend. In shooting he did not, as in other nations, 

 keep his left hand steady, and draw his bow with his 

 right ; but keeping his right at rest upon the nerve, he 

 pressed the whole weight of his body into the horns of his 



