110 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
SECTION THIRD. 
I. 8. Tue Yews. Tasus. L. Order Tasracee of Lindley. 
By some authors, the yews, with several associated genera, 
have been separated from the other evergreens, and made to 
form a distinct family. They are distinguished by their fruits 
not being collected in cones, but each ovule growing singly, 
unprotected by hardened scales; so that the mature fruit has 
no resemblance to those of the true pines. 
They are natives of temperate climates in all the quarters of 
the globe, and are occasionally found in hot latitudes; but are 
nowhere common. ‘They are resinous, like the true pines, and 
have similar properties. The wood of the European yew is 
famous for its toughness, and, before the invention of fire-arms, 
was highly valued as the best material for bows; according to 
Spencer’s descriptive line— 
“The eugh obedient to the bender’s will ;” 
and the name tarus is supposed to be derived from the Greek 
name for bow, toron, (Tofwv.) The English name is the Saxon 
Iw or Eow, hardly changed. 
The European yew, of which ours is considered a variety, is 
remarkable for the hardness, weight, and extreme durability of 
its wood, which is red and beautifully veined and knotted, and 
valued by the turner and cabinet-maker. It is a very long-lived 
tree, though of slow growth, of slower growth and greater du- 
rability than any other European tree; and it is one of those 
trees which best support the opinion of physiologists, that exo- 
genous trees are, by their nature, of indefinite growth; that 
they never die except by a violent death. A yew in Braburne 
churchyard, in Kent, was nearly twenty feet in diameter; and 
there is one in the woods of Cliefden, “called the Hedron yew, 
still in health and vigorous, which measures twenty-seven feet 
in diameter.”** The leaves of the yew are poisonous to cows 
and horses, though eaten with impunity by many other ani- 
mals. 
* Burnett; Outlines, I, 506. 
