YEW. 



[70] 



Family: CONIFERS [Translator's note: now TAXACEAE]. 

 Reproductive system: DIOECY, MONADELPHY. 



The common yew, Taxus baccata, Linn., is a tree with a trunk fifty or sixty feet 

 high. Its evergreen foliage has a melancholy look. The trunk is reddish, and its rough gray 

 bark seems to be peeling off. The leaves are linear, pointed, dark green, yellowish only 

 on new growth. They're arranged in quincunx and are turned up in a way that gives the 

 branch a winged appearance. The flowers are axillary, sessile, dioecious or monoecious, 

 and surrounded by scales instead of a calyx. The male flowers have eight or ten stamens. 

 Their filaments merge into a cylinder, and the anthers form a shield with six, seven, or 

 eight compartments that open underneath. The female flowers have one ovary with a 

 concave stigma. The receptacle that supports it enlarges when mature and forms a small 

 red berry with a sweet, mucilagenous taste. The pit contains a single fleshy and slightly 

 bitter seed. 



FLOWERS: in February, March, and April. 



RANGE: the Jura, the Alps, and mountains in the Auvergne. 



NOMENCLATURE. Taxus, according to Vossius, comes from a Greek word that 

 means arrow, because the fruit of this tree was used for poisoning them. German, 

 libenbaum, eife, eie. Danish, laxtrce. English, yew-tree. Italian, nasso, albero delta morte. 

 Spanish, tejo. Russian, tis. Hungarian, tissa-fa. 



USES. Observations and experiments by modern physicians have partly disposed 

 of the mistaken notions handed down to us by the ancients about the poisonous properties 

 of the fruit of the yew tree. M. Percy has shown that it has no harmful effects. On the 

 contrary, it acts as an emollient, a cough suppressant, a laxative and a purgative when 

 taken in large amounts. 



