THE COMMON YEW— continued. 
The Yew is in general dioecious, the flowers of both kinds being formed in 
autumn on minute scale-bearing twigs, but maturing between February and April. 
The male flower is yellow, globular, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and 
borne below the leaves of a spray. It consists of from six to fifteen spirally- 
arranged peltate stamens, each of which bears from five to nine pollen-sacs on its 
under surface. In dry weather these burst open and discharge clouds of fine dry 
dust-like pollen. The female flower consists of a single naked ovule. This is at 
first green and terminates a lateral outgrowth from the little scale-bearing twig just 
mentioned. Below it are three pairs of green scales, which, however, in no way 
adhere to the erect ovule. The ovule has but one integument, but before 
pollination a drop of viscid liquid exudes from the micropyle, as is also the case in 
the Juniper. This serves to capture the wind-borne pollen-grain, and by drying up 
draws the grain down into the micropyle. After fertilisation the green seed becomes 
surrounded by the well-known pretty pink cup-shaped aril, which is mucilaginous 
and is perhaps protected from damp by a slight waxy bloom that covers it. This 
aril serves, like the fleshy berry of the Juniper, to attract birds, and by their means 
the seeds are so dispersed that we may often see a Yew-tree waving from a church 
tower or from the face of a precipitous crag. The pink aril is harmless, but the 
green parts of the plant contain a poisonous alkaloid, known as taxin, which may, 
perhaps, be largely formed in the leaves when branches have been clipped. While 
many animals browse on the shoots with impunity, cattle are often killed when they 
eat the clippings, as they will with avidity. 
The wood of the Yew is remarkable among conifers for containing no resin. 
It is a reddish-brown, resembling mahogany, heavy, very hard, close-grained, tough, 
susceptible of a high polish, insect-proof, and more durable than any other European 
wood, especially in contact with the soil, so that, according to an old saying, “ a post 
of yew will outlast a post of iron.” It was used for early Greek statues of the gods, 
and is still sometimes employed for furniture, as is the allied species in Japan. Its 
most remarkable character, however, is its flexibility and elasticity ; and it has been 
suggested that this property may be connected with its internal structure, for it is 
entirely made up of elongated cells with spiral thickenings to their walls. This 
elasticity led to its early use for making bows, to which purpose the Japanese species 
was also applied by the aboriginal Ainu, and to this it may owe its Latin name 
Taxus , if this can be connected with the Greek to£ov, toxon. It was to bows of Yew 
that we mainly owed the victories of Crecy and Poitiers ; but, though home-grown 
wcod was used, it only fetched one-third the price of that brought by Venetian 
traders from Italy, Turkey, and Spain. Though bows are now largely made of 
Lancewood and Hickory, Yew is still employed. 
The slow growth and apparent immortality of this evergreen tree seems the 
root-idea in all those vernacular names in which it is inextricably confused with the 
Ivy, such as the Old English ew or iw , the Welsh yw, and the French if. 
