the Yew tree, in botany: A genus of plants belonging to the class of dicotyledons, and order of monochlamydeous, and in the natural system ranging under the fifth order, Coniferae. The male calyx is triphyllous, gemmaceous, and imbricated; there is no corolla; the stamens are numerous; the anthers peltate and octostylous. The female calyx resembles the male; there is no corolla nor style, and only one seed with a calyx resembling a berry very entire. There are only two species mentioned by Linnaeus, the baccata and nuclifera. M. Sonnerat has added a third, called capensis; and Sir Charles Thunberg has inserted two more, the macrophylla and verticillata, in his Flora Japonica.

The baccata, or common yew tree, is a native of Britain, France, Switzerland, &c., and of North America. It is distinguished from the other species by linear leaves which grow very close, and by the receptacles of the male flowers being subglobose. The wood is reddish, full of veins, and flexible, very hard and smooth, and almost incorruptible. Its hardness renders it very proper for turners and cabinet-makers. It produces berries which are red, mucilaginous, and have a sweet mawkish taste. They are often eaten by birds, and are therefore not poisonous. But it is a common opinion that the leaves are poisonous to cattle, and many facts are mentioned of horses and cows having died by eating them. Others, however, deny these facts. It is found in several parts of the Highlands of Scotland in a wild state. At Glenlure, near Glen Creran, 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 Gleninuir, i.e., "The valley of yew trees." It is of no great height, but the trunk grows to a large size. Mr Pennant has taken notice of a very remarkable decayed one in Fortingal church-yard, the remains of which measured 56 feet and an half in circumference.

The yew is at present almost peculiar to churchyards; hence some naturalists suspect that it is an exotic. Several reasons have been assigned for its frequency in churchyards. The first is, that before the invention of gunpowder the warrior might never be at a loss for a bow. This is an opinion for which we have found no historical evidence; and till some be produced it is considered merely as a conjecture. There are several laws enacted by our forefathers for encouraging archery, but none of them mention the cultivation of the yew. The bows used in England were indeed made frequently of yew, but it was yew of foreign growth. In the reign of Elizabeth, a bow of the best foreign yew sold for 6s. 8d., while one made of English yew sold only for 2s. In 12 Edw. IV., it was ordained that every foreign merchant that should convey any goods from 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. It appears therefore that the churchyards did not supply the nation with bows.

A second opinion concerning the introduction of yew trees into churchyards is, that they were intended to defend the church against storms. But there are many other trees that would have answered this purpose much better; for the yew is of so slow a growth, that it would be long before it could be of any service at all, and is so low that it could never be a sufficient shelter. A third opinion is, that being an evergreen, it is an emblem of immortality. This is a pretty idea; but the misfortune is, that yew is always considered as a tree of baleful influence. This opinion is as old as Statius, who says, metuenda fucco taxus. A fourth opinion is, that when anciently it was the custom, as it still is in Catholic countries, to carry palms on Palm-Sunday, the yew was substituted on such occasions for the palm. Two or three trees, the usual number growing in churchyards, were sufficient for such purposes. This is the only opinion which receives any countenance from history. The following extract from Caxton's Direction for keeping Feasts all the Year, printed in 1483, will probably be considered as decisive on this subject. It is taken out of the lecture for Palm-Sunday; where the writer, after giving the scriptural account of our Saviour's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, proceeds thus: "Wherefore holy church this day maketh solemn procession, in mynd of the procession that Crist made this day. But for enchelon that we have non olyve that berith grene leef, algate therfore we take eave in flede of palme and olyne, and heren about in procession, and so is thys day callyd Palme Sonday." As a confirmation of this fact, we may add, that the yews in the churchyards of East Kent are at this day called palms.