Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



does not come near the coast. Virgil says that it is 

 characteristic of cold soils, but with us it is most 

 plentiful on chalky soils {Ge. ii. 257). Perhaps 

 Virgil, seeing it flourish with a north aspect, made 

 the false inference that it liked the soil also to be 

 cold. Theophrastus observed that it was a moun- 

 tain tree and liked shade, but is silent as to the 

 soil. 



Our second passage shows that, as in medieval 

 England, the wood of the yew was shaped into 

 bows. The tree was also grown in gardens, and 

 sometimes became the victim of the topiary, though 

 it was the box that more often suffered the in- 

 dignity of being clipped into animal and inanimate 

 shapes. 



Virgil forbids the planting of yews near a bee- 

 hive {Ge. iv. 47), and was perhaps right in holding 

 that the flower of the yew made honey bitter. 

 Knowing that Corsican honey had an ill flavour, 

 he seems in our third passage to have assumed that 

 the bitterness was due to this tree. Travellers in 

 Corsica, however, set it down to the box. Arcangeli 

 says that yew is rare in all the islands. 



In the passage referred to above concerning soil 

 Virgil calls yews ' nocentes.' The word covers several 

 kinds of damage. Grass will hardly grow under a 

 yew, and the roots extend a long way. The ancients 

 held that both the berries and the leaves were 

 poisonous. I have often eaten the mucilaginous 

 berry, and if there is poison in it it must be in the 

 seeds. Cattle can eat the shoots off the tree ap- 



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