252 
nANGU/VGE of flowers. 
YEW. 
SORROW. 
There is in vegetables something that invites, 
attracts, or repels us. The Yew is among all 
nations the emblem of sorrow. Its barkless 
trunk, its dark green foliage, with which its 
fruit, looking like drops of blood, stands in harsh 
contrast—in short, everything about it warns 
the passenger to keep aloof from its dangerous 
shade. Persons who sleep under a Yew-tree 
are liable to be seized with dizziness, heaviness, 
and violent head-ache. Its sprays poison asses 
and horses, which eat them: its juice is per¬ 
nicious to man ; but the fruit is harmless, for 
children eat it without experiencing any ill 
effects. It exhausts the soil which supports it, 
and destroys all other plants that spring up 
beneath it. 
By our ancestors the Yew was planted in 
burial-grounds, where trees of this kind, of 
great age and size, may occasionally be seen to 
