87-1 TAXACE^E. 



they can almost give them the leaves alone without clanger. 

 To goats, hares, rabbits, and sheep it is said to be quite 

 innoxious, indeed we have repeatedly seen the three latter 

 animals browsing upon it with apparent impunity ; this, 

 however, might possibly arise from the small quantity 

 eaten at one time, or from having previously partaken 

 largely of other food, which, it has been shown, neutralises 

 the poisonous property, and this seems to account for 

 the fact that cattle and sheep have been known to pasture 

 without any dangerous consequences where Yew trees were 

 accessible to them, and which showed evident signs of 

 having been severely browsed. 



The berries do not partake of the poisonous quality of 

 the plant, as the sweet mucilaginous cup which surrounds 

 the nut, as well as the kernel of the latter may be eaten 

 without danger. They are a favourite food of the Meru- 

 UdcE, or thrush tribe, and the female trees are eagerly 

 resorted to by the Missel Thrush, Blackbird, &c, as soon 

 as the fruit begins to acquire its scarlet tinge. Wasps, 

 also, are said to prefer the fruit of the Yew to that of the 

 vine, and under this impression Mr. Knight, in the " Hor- 

 ticultural Transactions, 11 suggests the advantage of planting 

 female Yew trees in the immediate vicinity of vineries. 



As a short notice of some of the most celebrated Yew 

 trees, remarkable for their antiquity, dimensions, or other 

 peculiarities, may not be uninteresting to our readers, we 

 shall proceed to select a few from the lists now before 

 us. Commencing, therefore, with those already recorded 

 by former writers, we pass to the Crowhurst Yew, growing 

 in Crowhurst churchyard, close to the ruins of the abbey, 

 which, in Evelyn's time, had a trunk ten feet in diameter. 

 At the present day the trunk is hollow, but it still carries 

 a noble and flourishino' head. The Yew trees at Foun- 



