294 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



animals had eaten of the poisonous tree, and 

 a great quantity of it was found in their 

 stomachs. It appeared that these horses had 

 died without even a struggle. 



A filly nine months old, which had been 

 turned in at the same time, although some- 

 what affected, was saved by the prompt ad- 

 ministration of proper antidotes. 



Martyn says, in his edition of Miller, " the 

 twigs and leaves of yew, eaten in a very small 

 quantity, are certain death to horses and cows, 

 and that in a few minutes. A horse tied to 

 a yew-hedge, or to a faggot-stack of dead yew, 

 shall be found dead before the owner can be 

 aware that any danger is at hand : the writer 

 has been several times a sorrowful witness to 

 losses of this kind among his friends ; and in 

 the isle of Ely had once the mortification to 

 see nine young steers or bullocks of his own 

 all lying dead in an heap, from browzing a 

 little on an hedge of yew, in an old garden, 

 into which they had broken in snowy weather. 

 Even the clippings of a yew-hedge have de- 

 stroyed a whole dairy of cows, when thrown 

 inadvertently into a yard." 



Linnaeus says, horses and cows refuse the 

 yew, but sheep and goats eat it with impu- 

 nity ; but in this instance the learned botanist 

 is in error, at least as far as relates to sheep. 



