179 
yon, and so is thys day called Palme Sunday.” It 
certainly is not improbable that tbe custom we are 
considering should hâve originated in this; and a con¬ 
firmation of this opinion is the fact, that in some 
parts of Kent, Yews are at this day called Faims. 
Sir Thomas Browne, Evelyn, and Ray, however, 
dérivé its being peculiarly « the churchyard tree ” 
from ancient funeral solemnities; its never-ceasino- 
G» 
verdure causing it to be esteemed a type that 
man’s death-sleep will not be eternal. The gloomy 
nature of the foliage, too, stamps it as appropriate to 
wave “its living plumes” above the dead. It has 
been noted that the tenants of the grave over which 
trees spread wide their branches, retum to the dust 
whence they sprung, much sooner than where the 
sky is the only canopy. 
The spray which illustrâtes this slight sketch was 
gathered from an old tree in the churchyard of the 
village where we résidé. It stands by the side of a 
magnificent Horse-chesnut, and the attention of the 
passer-by is arrested in Spring-time by the contrast 
which the sombre foliage of the Yew présents to its 
light-green leaves and thick clusters of white blossom. 
Many a mound is raised beneatb that tree, and there 
