yew. 253 
of the dead, but, before the invention of fire-arms, 
their wood was chiefly employed for making bows, 
cross-bows, and arrows. The ancient Greeks used 
it for the same purposes. 
For a long time it served to adorn our gardens, 
where it formed hedges clipped into the shape of 
massive walls or tortured into fantastic figures ; but, 
thanks to the improved taste in landscape-gardening 
introduced during the last century, that barbarous 
perversion of nature is quite exploded in this coun- 
try, though it may yet be met with in the formal 
gardens of Holland. There, it is not uncommon to 
see the four corners of a perfect square ornamented 
with Yews clipped into the form of vases, pyramids, 
or prodigious balls. 
The Greeks, who had more just ideas of the real 
beauties of Nature, impressed, like ourselves, with 
the melancholy aspect of this tree, invented the fable 
of the unhappy Smilax, who, seeing that her love 
was rejected by the young Crocus, was transformed 
into a Yew. In their beautiful country, every plant 
every tree, spoke to men of heroes, of gods, and of 
love. Let us listen to their voices : to us, too, they 
will talk of Providence, who, after bestowing a pro- 
fusion of them for the supply of our wants, reserves 
