790 YEW. 
tion of the Hanoverian, for several instances oc- 
cur to the recollection of the writer in which the 
presence of a considerable quantity of other food 
in the rumen did not preserve the beast from the 
fatal effects of the yew. Fortunately, it is seldom 
that cattle browse upon the green yew; the mis- 
chief is usually done by the half-dried clippings 
of the yew-trees, or hedges, which are too often 
suffered to lie in the way of cattle, and which 
they will eat, if not with avidity, yet freely. 
Little can be done in the way of medicine when 
cattle have browsed on these poisonous plants, 
and the only hope of the practitioner must be 
founded on the early and persevering use of the 
stomach pump. Plenty of warm water should 
be injected and pumped out, and that repeated 
again and again; and at length the stomach 
should be fully distended with water, for the 
purpose, and in the hope of, producing vomiting. 
Whether this succeeds or not, a brisk purgative 
should be next administered, but as cautiously 
and gently as possible, that it may pass on over 
the closed floor of the cesophagean canal into the 
fourth stomach, and not, by the power with which 
it descends, force open the pillars that compose 
that floor, and enter the rumen and be lost. 
Tonics and aromatics will here also follow the 
evacuation of the stomach, in order to restore its 
tone.” 
Three varieties of the common yew occur in 
shrubberies,—the short-leaved, with compara- 
tively very short leaves,—the procumbent, with 
so dwarfish a habit that it seldom can attain a 
height of more than 8 or 10 feet,—and the varie- 
gated-leaved, nearly as tall as the normal plant, 
but of slower growth, and with light yellow 
blotched or variegated foliage. The normal 
plant is raised from seeds, and ought to be trans- 
planted in its third year into a nursery, and kept 
there three or four years; but the varieties, 
though they may also be obtained from seed, yet, 
in order to their being had certainly true to their 
characters, require to be raised from layers; and 
while the normal plant and the short-leaved and 
procumbent varieties will do well in any common 
soil, the variegated-leaved variety is liable to lose 
all its characteristic properties unless raised and 
grown in a very barren soil. 
The Irish or fastigiate yew, Taxus hibernica, 
T. baccata hibernica, T. stricta, or J’. baccata 
stricta, is regarded by some botanists as a sepa- 
rate species, and by others as a mere though 
remarkable variety of the common yew. It 
is distinguished partly by a peculiar form and 
aggregation of its foliage, but still more and 
very greatly by an astricted and erect habit of 
growth, such as renders it eminently suitable 
YTTRIUM. 
for planting, along with the upright cypress, in 
the vicinity of buildings and among a profusion | 
of tombs and monuments, where straight hori- 
zontal lines predominate. It commonly attains 
a height of about 12 feet. 
The Canadian or American yew, Jaxus cana- 
densis, was introduced to Britain from Canada 
about 50 years ago. Its habit of growth is more 
close and compact than that of the common yew; 
its general appearance is more handsome; its 
leaves are shorter, more numerous, regularly 
pectinate, and of a light green colour; and its 
natural height and habitat and mode of -propa- 
gation are the same. | . 
The nut-bearing yew, Zaxus nucifera, is a 
native of China, and was introduced thence to 
Britain in 1820. It naturally attains about the 
same height as the common and the Canadian 
yews; but it is too tender to be successfully reared 
or maintained in the open ground in almost any 
part of Britain. 
YOKE. The appliance for coupling two oxen 
together and harnessing them to the plough. In 
the strict sense, indeed, it is merely the thick 
piece of wood which passes over their neck ; but 
in the popular sense, it comprises also the bow 
which encompasses their neck, the wreathings or 
stitchings which form the connections and fas- 
tenings, and the ring and chains which:afford an 
attachment to the traces. A yoke, in the myto- 
nymical sense, as in the phrase ‘a yoke of oxen,’ 
is the same as a team; and yoking, in all the 
ordinary senses of the word, whether in refer- 
ence to oxen or horses, to tillage implements or 
wheel-carriages, is simply the putting ofa draught 
animal into harness. 
YOKE OF LAND. A quantity of land which 
a yoke of oxen might plough in a day. 
YOLK. See Eaa and Woon. 
YPONOMEUTIDA. See Ermine Morn. 
YTTRIUM. A very rare metal,—the base of 
the earth yttria. This earth was first found in 
1794 at Ytterby in Sweden; and the metal was 
first obtained in a separate state in 1828 by 
Wohler. Yttrium has a scaly texture, a grey- 
ish black colour, and a perfectly metallic lustre ; 
it is brittle, and does not oxidize in either air 
or water; and when heated to redness, it burns 
with splendour in common air, and with great 
brilliance in oxygen. Yttria results from its 
combustion, and is white and shows marks of 
fusion; it dissolves in solution of potash and in 
sulphuric acid; it combines with sulphur, sele- 
nium, and phosphorus; and most of its salts 
have a sweet taste,—and many of them an ame- 
thyst colour. 
YUCCA. See Apam’s Nrrprx. 
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