BACCIFEKiE. 



165 



subject ; for it is not tlie berry, as a berry, that is so, but tbe husk of 

 the kernel or seed that acts as an irritant upon the stomach and intes- 

 tines of man ] the fleshy pulp, and the seed, or rather the embryo or 

 farina thereof, being innocuous. Moreover, the leaves, or young 

 twigs, or branchlets in late spring or early summer, when the sap is 

 in full flow, or ascending, and before being perfectly elaborated, and 

 compounded or confected in nature's laboratory, and the component 

 ingredients thereof not yet assigned their proper place in the tree's 

 system, but being, as it were, in a crude state as received from the 

 spongilets or feeding rootlets, then they are innocuous : while, in the 

 late autumn, winter, and early spring months, when the sap is 

 thoroughly matured, and when the tree is in a state of rest, as contra- 

 distinguished from its feeding season, then these leaves or twigs will 

 produce the same injurious eflects as irritants upon the stomach and 

 intestines of many of our four-footed domestic, or wild, ruminating 

 animals. It is even yet more remarkable, that, v/hen the leaves or 

 twigs are full of the flowing or crude sap, while the tree is in full 

 growth, or vigorously taking in its annual diet, then also will these 

 leaves and tivigs, if cut from the tree for a few days, and partially 

 dried or w^ithered, produce these noxious or irritant effects : yet if 

 thoroughly dried or completely withered they are harmless. In this fact 

 there is a most beautiful illustration to man as a chemist, and an indication 

 to him of how much he has yet to learn in nature's chemical laboratory. 



Again, Taxis, "arrangement," from the Greek raaaco, '^to arrange", has 

 some affinity, and the name Taxus, may or may not owe its origin to 

 this root, inasmuch as the arrangement of the leaves is somewhat 

 regular, being disposed on the branches not unlike the tooth of a 

 comb. Our own familiar English name Yew, is derived from the 

 ancient Celtic iiv, " green." 



One is struck with the wide difference between the range of names 

 of this tree among northern nations, and the Asiatic, and South Euro- 

 pean. It is plain there are two origins for them, the Celtic iw, Saxon 

 if, which is retained to the letter by the French if, German eibe, 

 English Yeio : whereas the Italians in their tasso, and the Spaniards 

 in their tejo, texo, follow the Grecian or Latin origin. 



It were a curious question in philology what might be the origin 

 and sense of the Saxon word if, and Celtic iw. Some derive even this 

 also from the Greek, — from the Greek word lttto), ipto to hurt, because of 

 the deleterious character of the yew, or of its destructiveness in the bow, or 

 the poisoned arrows, of which Pliny writes so much : lib. xvi, c. 10. 



