LETTER V 



IN the church-yard of this village is z, 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 antiquity : the body is 

 squat, short, and thick, and measures twenty-three feet in 

 the girth, supporting an head of snitable extent to it's bulk. 

 This is a male tree, which in the spring sheds clouds of 

 dust and fills the atmosphere around with it's 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 church-yards 

 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 cir- 

 cumstance 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 



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