The Garden Magazine, January, 1920 



215 



and on the same spot some centuries afterward, John, 

 Earl of Loudon, signed the Act of Union between England 

 and Scotland. And up and down the length of England 

 are ancient churchyards famed for their magnificent old 

 Yew trees. 



THE reason for the association of the Yew with church- 

 yards has been much debated and in all probability it 

 is several-fold. It is by no means confined to England but 

 is a custom common in Ireland, in Normandy, in Germany, 

 and elsewhere on the continent of Europe. That it is a 

 very old one is proved by a statement of Giraldus Cambren- 

 sis, who visited Ireland in 1184 and observed the tree 

 in cemeteries and holy places. It has been stated that "the 

 Yew was a funeral tree, the companion of the grave, among 

 the Celtic tribes," but there is no reliable evidence of this, 

 or that the aboriginal tribes or the 

 Druids held the Yew in any esteem. 

 On the other hand it has been 

 surmised, and with some show of 

 truth, that it was used by the early 

 Roman invaders of Britain in their 

 funeral rites in lieu of their accus- 

 tomed Cypress and Pine, and thus 

 associated with the passage of the 

 soul to its new abode. Certain it is 

 that from very early times it has 

 been used at funerals, for the prac- 

 tice is mentioned by many early 

 English writers. Evelyn in his 

 "Sylva," says "The best reason 

 that can be given why the Yew was 

 planted in churchyards is that 

 branches of it were often carried in 

 procession on Palm Sunday instead 

 of Palms." 



As a confirmation of this it is 

 said that the Yew trees in the 

 churchyards of Kent (England) 

 are to this day called Palms, as 

 also in Ireland where it is still the 

 custom for the peasants to wear in 

 their hats or buttonholes from 

 Palm Sunday until Easter-day sprigs 

 of Yew, and where the branches are 

 carried over the dead by mourners 

 and thrown beneath the coffin in 

 the grave. Being evergreen it was 

 considered typical of the immortal- 

 ity of man; and having in mind 

 primitive man's reverence for trees 

 there is good reason to believe that 

 the Yew Tree had a part in the 

 Pagan religion of our remote ances- 

 tors, and that Christian monks later 

 engrafted it on to Christianity. 



TN ORNAMENTAL gardening 

 I the English Yew was employed 

 as early as the Tudor times to form 

 hedges, and was pleached and 



JAPANESE YEW IN ITS NATIVE LAND 



This specimen of Taxus cuspidata with the native 

 forester for company approaches the ultimate 

 with a height of 40 feet and a girth of 7 feet 



clipped into the forms of grotesque beasts, birds, cones, 

 pyramids, and other fantastic shapes. During the 17th 

 century the taste for this kind of art increased and in 

 the time of William and Mary reached its highest point. 

 Even to-day in Europe there are many old places famous 

 for this topiary art — and in this country at least one, the 

 Hunnewell Garden, Wellesley, Mass. — but in general it has 

 fallen into disrepute. Pope helped it to this end by his com- 

 ment: "An eminent town gardener has arrived at such per- 

 fection that he cuts family pieces of men, women, or children 

 in trees. Adam and Eve in Yew, Adam a little shattered by 

 the fall of the Tree of Knowledge in the great storm; Eve 

 and the serpent very flourishing. St. George in box, his arm 

 scarce long enough but will be in a condition to stick the 

 dragon by next April; a green dragon of the same with a tail 

 of ground-ivy for the present. (N. B. — These two not to be 



sold separately). Divers eminent 

 modern poets in bays somewhat 

 blighted to be disposed of a penny- 

 worth. A quickset hog, shot up 

 into a porcupine by its being forgot 

 a week in rainy weather." Very 

 many fine Yew hedges and sculp- 

 tured trees were swept away in Eng- 

 land in the middle of the 18th cen- 

 tury by the celebrated landscape 

 gardener "Capability" Brown, who 

 dealt ruthlessly with all clipped 

 material and topiary work. 



THOUGH the geological antiqu- 

 ity of the Yew does not compare 

 with that of the Ginkgo [see Garden 

 Magazine for November, 1919] it 

 is probably as ancient as the 

 Cedars, [see December Garden 

 Magazine]. In early Tertiary times, 

 when the elephant and rhinoceros 

 roamed through Britain, Greenland, 

 and the now arctic regions of this 

 continent, the Yew formed a com- 

 mon ingredient of the forests of 

 those lands. To-day the Yew is 

 found widespread in the temperate 

 regions of the North Hemisphere. 

 The family likeness everywhere is 

 very strong, so strong in fact that 

 many botanists consider all to be- 

 long to one species. Under culti- 

 vation, however, they behave dif- 

 ferently, especially in degrees of 

 hardiness; and there are other and 

 more subtle points of difference 

 which merit recognition. The Ar- 

 nold Arboretum recognizes eight 

 species, with many varieties and 

 forms; and from the garden view- 

 point at any rate, this classifica- 

 tion is the most satisfactory. 



On this continent are found four 

 species — the Canadian Yew (Taxus 



