TAX 
under the protection of the state. The expense of govern¬ 
ment to the individuals of a great nation is like the expense 
of management to the joint tenants of a great estate. In the 
observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is called 
the equality or inequality of taxation.” 
Second. “ The tax which each individual is bound to pay 
ought to be certain, and not arbitrary. The time of pay¬ 
ment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, 
ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor and to 
every other person. When it is otherwise, every person 
subject to the tax is put, more or less, in the power of the 
tax-gatherer, who can either aggravate the tax upon any 
obnoxious contributor, or extort, by the terror of such aggra¬ 
vation, some present or perquisite to himself. The uncer¬ 
tainty of taxation encourages the insolence and favours the 
corruption of an order of men who are naturally unpopular, 
even where they are neither insolent nor corrupt. The cer¬ 
tainty of what each individual ought to pay is, in taxation, 
of so great importance, that a very considerable degree of 
inequality, it appears, I believe, from the experience of all 
nations, is not near so great an evil as a very small degree of 
uncertainty.” 
Third. “ Every tax ought to be levied at the time and in 
the manner in which it is most likely to be convenient for 
the contributor to pay it. A tax upon the rent of land, 
or of houses, payable at the same term at which rents are 
usually paid, is levied at the time when it is most likely to be 
convenient for the contributor to pay, or when he is most 
likely to have wherewithal to pay. Taxes upon such con¬ 
sumable goods, as are articles of luxury, are all finally paid by 
the consumer, and generally in a manner that is very con¬ 
venient for him. He buys them by little and little, as, he 
has occasion to buy the goods; and as he is at liberty, too, 
either to buy or not to buy as he pleases, it must be his own 
fault if he ever suffers any considerable inconveniency from 
such taxes.” 
Fourth. “ Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to 
take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little 
as possible, over and above what it brings into the public 
treasury of the state.”— Wealth of Nations, iii. p. 255. 
TA'XER, s. One who taxes.—These rumours begot 
scandal against the king, taxing him for a great taxer of his 
people. Bacon. 
TAXIMAROA, a settlement of Mexico, in the intendancy 
of Valladolid •, 5 leagues south of Valladolid. Its population 
consists of above 600 families of Spaniards, Indians, and 
mulattoes. 
TAXUS [of Pliny, &c.], in Botany, a genus of the class, 
dioecia, order monadelphia, natural order of coniferae. 
Generic Character.—-Male. Calyx none; except a bud like a 
four-leaved perianth. Corolla none. Stamina: filaments 
numerous, united at bottom into a column, longer than the 
bud. Anthers depressed, blunt at the edge, eight-cleft, 
gaping every way at the base, and, when they have dis¬ 
charged their pollen, flat, peltate, and remarkable for their 
eight-cleft margin.—Female. Calyx as in the male. Corolla 
none. Pistil: germ ovate, acuminate. Style none. Stigma ob¬ 
tuse. Pericarp: berry from the receptacle elongated into a prae- 
putium, globular, succulent, gaping at the top, coloured, at 
length wasting from dryness, and evanescent. Seed one, 
ovate-oblong, prominent at the top, beyond the berry. 
Essential Character. —Male. Calyx none. Corolla none. 
Stamina many. Anthers peltate eight-cleft.-—Female. Co¬ 
rolla none. Style none. Seed one, in a berried calycle that 
is quite entire. 
I. Taxus baccata, or common yew tree.—.Trunk straight, 
with a smooth deciduous bark. Wood hard. Leaves thickly 
set, evergreen. Flowers axillary.-—The yew tree is a native 
of Europe, North America and Japan. Its proper situation 
is in mountainous woods, or more particularly the clefts of 
high calcareous rocks. Yew trees sometimes grow to an 
enormous size, one in the church-yard of Crowhurst in 
Surrey, was ten yards in compass. Another in Branburne 
church-yard, not far from Scots-Hall in Kent, which being 
fifty-eight feet eleven inches in circumference, will bear near 
T A Y 867 
twenty-feet diameter. Such another is also to be seen in 
Sutton church-yard near Winchester. Near the church at 
Hedsor in Bucks, is a fine growing yew-tree, which measures 
twenty-seven feet in circumference. Other remarkable yews 
that are mentioned are, one at Ifley by Oxford, four yards and 
six inches round. Talbot’s Yew in Takersley parish. One 
in Martley church-yard, Worcestershire, about twelve yards 
in circumference. In the church-yard at Ashill, in Somerset¬ 
shire, are two very large yew-trees; one fifteen feet round, 
with a vast spread of branches, extending north and south 
fifty-six feet. The other divides into three large trunks just 
above the ground, but many of the arms are decayed. Two 
trees are now growing on the hill above Fountain’s abbey, 
near Ripon, which in 1770 measured in circumference from 
thirteen feet to twenty-six feet six inches. In the church-yard at 
Aberistwith are eleven yew-trees, the largest twenty-four feet, 
and the smallest eleven and a half in circumference. In 
Mamkilad church-yard are twelve fine trees, the largest of 
which is twenty-five feet in circumference. Doubtless there 
must be many large ancient yew-trees remaining in Wales. 
The twigs and leaves of yew, eaten in a very small 
quantity, are certain death to horses and cows, and that in a 
few minutes. A horse tied to a yew-hedge, or to a faggot- 
stack of dead yew, shall be found dead before the owner can 
be aware that any danger is at hand ; the writer has been 
several times a sorrowful witness to losses of this kind among 
his friends; and in the isle of Ely had once the mortification 
to see nine young steers or bullocks of his own all lying dead 
in an heap from browzing a little on an hedge of yew in an 
old garden, into which they had broken in snowy weather. 
Even the clippings of a yew edge have destroyed a whole 
dairy of cows when thrown inadvertently into a yard. And 
yet sheep and turkeys, and, as park-keepers say, deer, will 
crop these trees with impunity. 
Some intelligent persons assert, that the branches of yew, 
while green, are not noxious: but among the number of 
cattle that we have known fall victims to this deadly food, 
not one has been found, when it was opened, but had a lump 
of green yew in its paunch. True it is, that yew-trees stand 
for twenty years or more in a field, and no bad consequences 
ensue: but at some time or other, cattle, either from wanton¬ 
ness when full, or from hunger when empty, will be med- 
ling, to their certain destruction. In the south of England 
almost every church-yard has its yew-tree, and some have 
two ; but in the north few are to be found. 
2. Taxus nucifera, or acorn-bearing yew.—Leaves linear 
distant. The fruit resembles the acorns of the Oak, and is 
astringent. The wood is in request among the cabinet¬ 
makers.—Native of Japan, here and there near Nagasaki and 
in Nipou. 
3. Taxus macrophylla, or long leaved yew.—Leaves soli¬ 
tary, lanceolate remote. The wood is used by the cabinet¬ 
makers.—Native of Japan near Nagasaki, &c. It flowers in 
June. 
4. Taxus verticillata, or whorl-leaved yew.—Leaves 
wliorledlinear, sickle-shaped.—Native of Japan. 
Propagation and Culture. —Sow the berries in autumn, 
as soon as they are ripe, without clearing them from the pulp 
upon a shady bed of fresh undunged soil, covering them 
about half an inch thick with the same earth. In the spring 
clear the bed carefully from weeds, and if the season prove 
dry, refresh the bed with water occasionally, to promote the 
growth of the seeds, many of which will come up the same 
spring, but others will remain in the ground until autumn or 
spring following; but where the seeds are preserved above 
ground, until spring before they are sown, the plants never 
come up until the year after. 
The Yew may likewise be propagated by cuttings of one 
or two years growth, planted in a shady border, the begin¬ 
ning of April, or the end of August: tom branches are pre¬ 
ferable for this purpose. 
TAY, one of the largest rivers in Scotland. It has its rise 
on the frontiers of Lorn, Argyllshire, although it does not 
assume the name of Tay till it issues from the lake of that 
name. At its source,)! has the name of Fillan, winding in an 
easterly 
