288 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



Cheerless, unsocial plant ! that lov'st to dwell 

 Midst skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms ; 

 Where light heel'd ghosts, and visionary shades 

 Beneath the wan cold moon (as fame reports) 

 Embodied thick, perform their mystic rounds. 

 No other merriment, dull tree ! is thine." Blair. 



The dark foliage of the yew-tree seems 

 well calculated to give a solemnity to the vil- 

 lage churchyard, and its wide extending 

 branches offer their shade to the rustic Sun- 

 day politicians, until the treble bell anounces 

 the time of prayer. 



" On Sunday, at the old yew-tree, 



Which canopies the churchyard stile, 

 Forced from his master's company, 



The faithful Trim would mope awhile ; 

 For then his master's only care 

 Was the loud psalm, or fervent prayer ; 

 And, 'till the throng the church-yard path retrod, 

 The shepherd's patient guard lay silent on the sod. 



Mrs. M. Robinson. 



All nations agree in making this tree the 

 emblem of sorrow, and our poets are not 

 backward in condemning and adding to the 

 revolting character of a tree, whose wood was 

 dedicated to war, and its shade to the dead. 



" Where sheds the sickly yew 



O'er many a mouldering bone its nightly dew." 



Darwin. 



