OF SELBORNE. 531 



LETTER V. 



IN the churchyard of this village is a yew-tree, whose 

 aspect bespeaks it to be of a great age : it-.seems to 

 have seen several centuries, and is probably coeval 

 with the church, and therefore may be deemed an anti- 

 quity : the body is squat, short, and thick, and measures 

 [upwards of] twenty-three feet in the girth, supporting 

 a head of suitable extent to its bulk. This is a male 

 tree, which in the spring sheds clouds of dust, and fills 

 the atmosphere around with its farina. 



As far as we have been able to observe, the males of 

 this species become much larger than the females ; and 

 it has so fallen out that most of the yew-trees in the 

 churchyards of this neighbourhood are males : but this 

 must have been matter of mere accident, since men, 

 when they first planted yews, little dreamed that there 

 were sexes in trees. 



In a yard, in the midst of the street, till very lately, 

 grew a middle sized female tree of the same species, 

 which commonly bore great crops of berries. By the 

 high winds usually prevailing about the autumnal 

 equinox, these berries, then ripe, were blown down into 

 the road, where the hogs ate them. And it was very 

 remarkable, that, though barrow-hogs and young sows 

 found no inconvenience from this food, yet milch-sows 

 often died after such a repast: a circumstance that can 

 be accounted for only by supposing that the latter, 

 being much exhausted and hungry, devoured a larger 

 quantity. 



While mention is making of the bad effects of yew- 

 berries, it may be proper to remind the unwary, that 

 the twigs and leaves of yew, though eaten in a very 

 small quantity, are certain death to horses and cows, 

 and that in a few minutes. A horse tied to a yew 

 hedge, or to a faggot stack of dead yew, shall be found 



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