THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
179 
Taxace^e. —An order represented by tlie yew, Taxus 
baccata, must now claim attention. The tree is too well 
known to need description; but there are such conflicting 
opinions with regard to its powers, that it will be necessary 
to notice them in this place. That the ancients held the yew 
to be poisonous is beyond doubt, and this seems to be con¬ 
firmed by the reports of poisoning of cattle which one sees 
from time to time in the public prints. Again, the yew is a 
somewhat near ally of the savine, which we have already seen 
to possess very active properties; still we are not inclined to 
put confidence in all that has been stated with regard to the 
direful qualities attributed to the yew. Thus Plutarch says 
its shade is fatal to all who sleep under it. Pliny states that 
the berries are poisonous. Gerarde, however, after citing 
the different opinions of the ancients upon the poisonous 
qualities of the yew, as quoted by Dr. Symes, says, a All 
which, I dare boldly affirm, is untrue, for when I was young 
and went to school, divers young schoolfellows, and likewise 
myself, did eat our fils of the berries of this tree, and have 
not only slept under the shadow thereof, but among the 
branches also, without any hurt at all, and that not one time, 
but several.” 
In the country we are very particular in keeping cattle 
from yew hedges, and more especially from the dried clip¬ 
pings of these. Now, if this be the powerful plant supposed 
by some, it is curious that the drying of its foliage should 
result so contrary from that of all other plants, as without 
doubt even foxglove, henbane, and hemlock lose much of 
their power, nay, become comparatively inert by drying. 
This view of the subject has led some people to conclude 
that, after all, the apparently poisoning effects result rather 
from mechanical causes; and as the leaf is small, with a 
sharp point and somewhat rigid even in the green state, it 
will be even more so when dried, and so the greater power 
of the dried over the green plant is so far accounted for. 
For ourselves, after having seen the autopsy of cows that 
had died after yew, we confess to be still in great doubt upon 
the whole matter, for in no case were the leaves digested, so 
that how they could act in their whole state as an irritant 
poison of so potent a character as has been assumed, seems 
a great difficulty. 
Couple this, again, with the observed facts that cattle often 
die from the effects of dry food, which becomes impacted in 
the stomach instead of properly digesting, and we think there 
is reason to believe that though the yew belongs to an active 
section of plants, yet that the stories asserted of its powers 
