TAXUS, the YEW-TREE; a genus of the monodelphia order, belonging to the dioecia class of plants. There are two species; of which the most remarkable is the baccata, or common yew, growing naturally in many places of England and Scotland. It is found here and there in the Highlands, in a truly wild state. At Glenlure, near Glen-Crean, in Upper-Lorn, are the remains of an old wood of it. The place takes its name from the trees which grow in it; for Glenlure, in the Gaelic language, is no other than a corruption of Gleanuir, i. e. "The valley of yew-trees."
It is an evergreen tree, of no great height; but the trunk grows to a large size. Mr Pennant has taken notice of a very remarkable decayed one in Fortingall church-yard, whose remains measured 56 feet and an half in circumference. The leaves are of a dark shining green, linear and acute, divided by a longitudinal nerve, and grow in a double series, opposed to each other, on the same plane. The flowers, both male and female, grow from the axle of the leaves. The berry is red and mucilaginous, of a singular structure, being formed out of the receptacle, which swells and becomes succulent, but does not cover the top of the seed. It has a sweet mawkish taste. The wood is red and veined, very hard and smooth, and much used by turners and cabinet-makers. The tree is very patient of the shears, and will assume almost any figure. It has generally been supposed to have a poisonous quality. We have repeated accounts of horses and cows that have died by eating it; but whether the yew was the immediate cause of their death, is a matter of some doubt. The berries are certainly not poisonous.
Our ancestors esteemed the wood of this tree as superior to any other for making bows. For this intent it was planted in almost every church-yard, for the convenience and ready use of the several parishioners.