2070

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

PART 111.

bite of vipers. Plutarch says that it is venomous when it is in flower, becausethe tree is then full of sap ; and that its shade is fatal to all who sleep underit. Pliny adds to the above, that the berries of the male yew are a mortalpoison, particularly in Spain; and that persons have died, who have drunkwine out of casks made of the wood. (Lib. xvi. cap. 10.) Also, that, accord-ing to Sextius, in Arcadia it was death to lie beneath the shade of the yew.In more modern times, Mathiolus and J. Bauhin were the first to prove, bypositive facts, the poisonous nature of the leaves of the yew; but FatherSchoot, a Jesuit, asserted that, if the branches of the tree were dipped instagnant water, their poison became neutralised. Gerard and L’Obel soonafterwards discovered that the fruit of the yew might be eaten with perfectsafety, and that there was no danger in sleeping beneath the shade of the tree.

The yew was formerly much valued in Britain, on account of the use madeof its wood for bows, this weapon being that principally used by the ancientBritons in all their wars. It was fatal to several British kings; viz., Harold,at the battle of Hastings ; William Rufus, in the New Forest; and RichardCceur de Lion, at Limoges, in France. It was to the skill of the English withthe long bow that the conquest of Ireland by Henry II., in 1172, is attri-buted; and afterwards the victories of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt. In1397, Richard II., holding a parliament in a temporary building, on accountof the wretched state of Westminster Hall, surrounded his hut with 4,000Cheshire archers, armed with tough yew bows, to insure the freedom ofdebate. ( Pennant’s London, ed. 3., p. 39.) Statutes were passed by manyof our early British sovereigns forbidding the exportation of yew wood, andobliging all Venetian and other carrying ships to import 10 bow-staves withevery butt of Malmsey or other wine; and, by the 5th of Edward IV., everyEnglishman dwelling in Ireland was expressly ordered to have an Englishbow of his own height, made of yew, wych hazel, ash, or awburne; that is,according to some, l’aubour, or the laburnum, which was as much used onthe Continent for making bows as the yew was in Britain (see p. 590.) ; or,according to others, the alder. “ As for brasell, elme, wych, and ashe,” saysRoger Ascham, “experience doth prove them to be mean for bowes; and soto conclude, ewe of all other things is that whereof perlite shootinge wouldhave a bowe made.” The last statute that appears in the books, respectingthe use of yew for bows, is the 13th of Elizabeth, c. 14„ which directs thatbow-staves shall be imported into England from the Hanse Towns, and otherplaces. In Switzerland, where the yew tree is scarce, it was formerly forbid-den, under heavy penalties, to cut down the tree for any other purpose than tomake bows of the wood. The Swiss mountaineers call it William’s tree, inmemory of William Tell.

The custom of planting yew trees in churchyards has never been satisfac-torily explained. Some have supposed that the yew trees were placed nearthe churches for the purpose of affording branches on Palm Sunday ; others,that they might be safe there from cattle, on account of their value for makingbows; others, that they were emblematical of silence and death; and others,that they were useful for the purpose of affording shade or shelter to thosewho came too soon for the service. The subject has occupied the attentionof various writers; of whom the last who has taken a comprehensive view ofit is J. E. Bowman, Esq., F.L.S., from whose article, in the Magazine ofNatural History, vol. i., new series, we give the following abridged abstract:—“ Many reasons have been assigned for the frequent occurrence of the yew inour churchyards; but it seems most natural and simple to believe that, beingindisputably indigenous, and being, from its perennial verdure, its longevity,and the durability of its wood, at once an emblem and a specimen of immor-tality, its branches would be employed by our pagan ancestors, on their firstarrival here, as the best substitute for the cypress, to deck the graves of thedead, and for other sacred purposes. As it is the policy of innovators inreligion to avoid unnecessary interference with matters not essential, these,with many other customs of heathen origin, would be retained and engrafted