YEW. MS 



head of branches spreading on every side, 

 and filling the area of the cloisters. Mr. 

 White says, in his history of Selborne, " In 

 the churchyard of this village is a yew-tree, 

 whose aspect bespeaks it to be of a great age: 

 the body is squat, short, and thick, and mea- 

 sures twenty-three feet in the girth, support- 

 ing a head of suitable extent to its bulk. 

 This is a male tree, which in the spring sheds 

 clouds of dust, and fills the atmosphere around 

 with its farina. As far as we have been able 

 to observe, the male trees become much larger 

 than the females ; and most of the yew-trees 

 in the churchyards of this neighbourhood 

 are males; but this," says Mr. White, " must 

 have been matter of mere accident, since men, 

 when they first planted yews, little dreamed 

 that there were sexes in trees." But we find 

 quite the contrary to this in all the old au- 

 thors on plants, who speak of male and female 

 trees as familiarly as at the present time, 

 although they had not defined the principles 

 by which vegetables propagated their species. 

 Pliny observes, that when the male trees of the 

 date-bearing palms are cut down, the female 

 trees become widows, and bear no more fruit. 



The Latin name of this tree, Taxus, is de- 

 rived from the Greek Tafa (arrangement), be- 

 cause the leaves are arranged on the branches 



vol. it. x 



