MONADELPHIA. POLYANDRIA. Pinus. 815 
P. sylves'tris. Leaves in pairs, rigid: cones egg-conical, mostly in 
pairs, as long as the leaves: scales oblong, blunt. 
More meet to deck the lowly grave 
These living plumes by nature spread. 
Than sable tufts that proudly wave 
Their pompous honours o’er the dead. 
The oak hath doffed his leafy pride. 
As frowning winter passed him by ; 
The grass hath shrunk, the flowers have died. 
Beneath bright summers burning sky ; 
But all to love and sorrow true 
Unblenching waved this funeral Yew. 
I had not from the mounds below 
Thus born their beauteous canopy. 
But life has many a secret throe. 
And sad remembrance many a sigh ; 
And oh ! tis sweet in hours of toil, 
Amid the throb of straggling grief. 
To rest the aching eye awhile 
Upon this dark and feathery leaf; 
And think how softly falls the dew 
On peaceful graves beneath the Yew. 
This branch of Yew! its tints deride 
The sparkling glow of early bloom ; 
It tells of youth and martial pride 
Commingling with the dreary tomb , 
It throws upon earth’s pageantry 
A shadow deep as closing night, 
And sweetly lures the awe-struck eye 
To rays of life and fields of light; 
And stars of promise burst to view. 
Through thy dark foliage, mournful Yew ! ” 
A statute of Edward I. (1307), contains the following passage ; “Ne Rector arbores in 
cemetrio prosternat: ” which must have referred chiefly to Yew trees, thus protected, partly 
to prevent their injuring cattle, (as unfit for general exposure from their noxious qualities), 
but chiefly with the intentions above specified ; and possibly, (though by no means a primary 
consideration as sometimes imagined), as ensuring an essential supply to the archer in time 
of need. The use of Yew for this latter purpose is of very ancient date: 
- .- “ ltyraeos Taxi torquentur in arcus.” Virg. 
tl The sacred Yew, so fear’d in war.” 
And Homer describes the inhabitants of Crete, as 
<£ Cydoniaus, dreadful with the bended Yew." 
But no nation was more terrible by the aid of this weapon, than our athletic ancestors, 
- “ Who drew, 
And almost join’d, the horns of the tough Yew; ” 
And again, 
(i The Eugh obedient to the bender’s will.” Spenser. 
Indeed so much strength was requisite in drawing these long-bows, that the stout 
yeomen of the olden time were wont to boast that none but an Englishman could bend 
them. At that early period, before the invention of gunpowder, it is obvious the 
church-vards did not supply our warriors with the necessary materials, but that the timber 
was of foreign growth. In the reign of Elizabeth, a bow of the best foreign Yew was sold 
for 6s. 8 (L, whilethe price of one made of English Yew was only two shillings. In 12 
Edward IV. it w*as ordained that every foreign merchant who should convey any goods trom 
any country from which bow'-staves had formerly been brought to this country, should for 
every ton of goods bring four bow-staves. A similar law was framed in the time of 
Richard III. In those iron ages the bow triumphed over the spear, the shield, and the sword. 
VOL. III. o 
