282 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
For the decoration of places of burial it is well adapted, from 
the deep and perpetual verdure of its foliage, which, con- 
jointly with its great longevity, may be considered as em- 
[Fig. 37. The English Yew.] 
blematical of immortality. The custom still exists, in a few 
places in Ireland and Wales, of carrying twigs of this and 
other evergreen trees in funerals, and throwing them into 
the grave, with the corpse* 
“ -Yet strew 
Upon my dismall grave 
Such offerings as ye have, 
Forsaken Cypresse and Yewe ; 
For kinder flowers can have no birth 
Or growth from such unhappy earth.” 
Stanly. 
There is a mournful yet sweet and pensive pleasure, in 
thus adorning these last places of repose with such beautiful, 
unfading memorials of grief. They rob the graveyard or 
cemetery of its horrors, and by their perpetual garlands of 
Encyclopaedia of Plants, 849. 
