^ 





mtw. 



(HaiUS baccata. Natural Order: Taxacece — Ycil' Family. 



-ITH a trunk of large girth, and broad-speading branches, the 

 European Yew is a tree of low stature. Associated, as it 

 nearly always is, with the burial places of the dead, it 

 has among all nations become an acknowledged emblem 

 of sorrow. Either through the nourishment of the soil be- 

 h h coming wholly exhausted, or because of the shadow cast by its 

 foliage, little if anything grows beneath its shade; and an old idea is, 

 that to sleep beneath its branches benumbs or stupefies the brain. The 

 Latin synonym is derived from the original Greek name taxus. On 

 account of its pernicious qualities the ancient poets, as Ovid, Silius and 

 Lucanus, considered it the "tree of the infernal regions." There are 

 some fift}- species scattered throughout the temperate zone, several of 

 them being mere shrubs. The Dwarf Yew, or Ground Hemlock, is 

 found in Canada and our Northern States, inhabiting a rocky soil and shady, 

 cool places, where it grows to a height of about three feet. It produces a small, 

 red, waxy-looking berry, open at the top, which surrounds a single black seed. 



> AST sorrows, let us niod'ratelv lament them : 

 For those to come, seek wisely to prevent then 



iNE fire burns out anc 



One pain is lessen'd 



Turn giddv, and be help' 



another's anguish ; 

 »y backward turnine"; 



TT 1 

 ^ Y 



T' 



/^NE fire burns out another's burning; One desp'rate grief" cure with another's languish; 



^-^ Drio nail I't loccon'^ K„ o.i.Afiiorv- o.,„.,:..i, . Take thou some new infection to the eve, 



And the rank poison of the old will die. 



~Slia/:esf€are. 

 breathes no sigh, it sheds no tear, 



consumes the heart. —Slieridmi. 

 AMAZ'D he stands, nor voice nor body stirs; Oppress'd with grief, his passion had no bound; 



Words had no passage, tears no issue found; Striving to tell his woes, words would not come; 

 For sorrow shut up words, wrath kept in tears; For light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb. 

 Confused effects each othei- do confound : 



*HE good are better made bv ill; 

 And odors crushed are sweeter still! 



5-4 



-Daniel. 



