1 907-1 9 oS.] The Yew, 53 



poisonous than the female does not seem correct, for instances 

 are plentiful of cattle and horses being poisoned by Irish yews, 

 which are all female plants. Cases of yew poisoning have 

 certainly occurred to cattle and horses at all periods of the 

 year. It is frequently asserted that cattle and horses are 

 only poisoned when they eat greedily of the leaves, but a four- 

 year-old cart-horse was poisoned by eating a few sprigs three 

 inches long. That the leaves are only fatal when the stomach 

 is comparatively empty is also incorrect, for there are cases 

 where a large amount of masticated grass was found in the 

 stomach and the yew leaves uppermost. Numerous experi- 

 ments made by the Eoyal Agricultural Society several years 

 ago on various animals with the leaves and fruit of the yew 

 proved distinctly that some animals may take considerable 

 quantities of the leaves without injury, while others are 

 poisoned by eating the smallest amount. Horses, cattle, and 

 sheep usually exhibit a strong repugnance to the plant, and 

 never touch it unless pressed by hunger. As a rule it is a 

 fatal plant to horses and cattle, so many instances being on 

 record of its poisonous effects. It is always dangerous to 

 allow cattle or horses to have access to yew-trees, and to 

 leave cuttings within their reach is a perilous experiment. 

 Many of the old yews of this country are connected with 

 interesting historical incidents. The most famous and best- 

 known yew in Scotland is the Fortingall yew. Pennant 

 speaks of it as a prodigious tree in 1771. In the new 

 Statistical Account of Scotland it is stated that in 1806 there 

 lived an old man who remembered that when a boy he could 

 hardly pass through between the two parts of the trunk ; now 

 several yards separate them, and this dilapidation was mainly 

 occasioned by the boys of the village kindling their fire at 

 Beltane within the hollowed trunk. Next to the Fortingall 

 yew is that of Ormiston, one of the most beautiful trees in 

 Scotland. It is growing on the Ormiston Estate, near Mussel- 

 burgh, and is still in a flourishing and vigorous condition. It 

 was a tree of some size in 1474. Wishart is said to have 

 held religious service under its shade. John Knox also used 

 to preach under the venerable yew when he resided at Ormis- 

 ton as Chaplain to the Cockburns of Ormiston, then a leading 

 reforming family. 



