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T A X U S baccatâ*
Yew Tree.
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L>IO E CIA Monadelfhia.
Gen. Char. Male/ Cal. none. Cor. none. Siam, numerous.
A n ti, peltate, lobed.
Female, Cal. cup-fhaped, entire. Style none. Seed i ,
Handing on the pulpy calyx.
Spec. Char. Leaves thickly fet.
S y n . Taxus baccata. Linn. Sp. PI. 1472. Hndf. 437.
With. 614. Hull. 222. Relb. 374. Sibth. 2 16.
Taxus. Raii Syn. 445,
T H E proper wild fituation of the common yew is in mountainous
woods, or more particularly the clefts of high calcareous
rocks. Several fine old trees of this fpecies, from which
our fpecimen was taken, are to be feen on fome fandy rocks
about 2 miles from Withyam and 5 from Tunbridge/ It
flowers in March and April. The fruit ripens in autumn.
The trunk is known by its ftraight form and fmooth deciduous
hark. The wood is very hard, tough, and of a fine grain,
famous in ancient times for making bows, and ufed in more
modern days in the finer kinds of cabinet work for inlaying.
Church-yards in the mountainous parts of Britain, efpecially
in Wales, are always planted with yew-trees, fuppofed to have
been intended to furnifh bows for the village archers. The
gloomy funereal afpe£t of the tree might be another caufe of its
being planted in fucb fituations ; its being eafily clipped without
injury into the moft whimfical fliapes, feems the only rea-
fon why it could find a place in the pleafure garden. The
leaves are thickly fet, linear, fmooth, ever-green. Flowers
axillary, enveloped with imbricated bra&ese ; the male on one
tree, fulphur-coloured, without a calyx5 the female on another,
with a fmall green calyx fuftaining the oval flattifh feed, which
calyx at length becomes red, foft, full of a fweet flimy pulp, that
is not unwholefome, though the leaves are very poifonous.