The  fertile  fiower  resembles  a  minute
acorn,  the  cup  of  which  swells,  and  when
ripe  has  the  appearance  of  red  cornelian,
enclosing  an  oval  brown  nut,  the  summit
of  which  is  uncovered.  These  berries,  if
berries  they  may  be  called,  drop  when  ripe,
and  contain  a  sweet  glutinous  juice.  They
are  of  a  mawkish  disagreeable  taste,  but
lire  eaten  with  impunity  by  children,  and
greedily  devoured  by  wasiw,  caterpillars,
and  several  kinds  of  birds.  Thenut  contains
a  kernel,  which  has  an  agreeable  flavour
like  that  of  the  stone-pine.  The  leaves
are  poisonous,  though  to  what  extent  is
a  diaputed  question;  but  of  this  there
can  be  no  donbt,  that  their  effects  on
the  human  fnune  are  deadly,  and  that  to
give  them  to  cattle  is  a  perilous  experi-
ment It  appears  from  all  aecounta  that
the  poison  is  more  vh>ulrat  in  the  young
shoots  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Vtee»


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bat  that  It  exists,  in  greater  or  less  quanti-
tliM,  both  In  the  leaves  and  in  the  green
bark.  The  leaves  are  more  dangerous  in  a
balf-dry  state  than  when  fresh.
The  wood  Is  hard,  compact,  of  a  fine  and
close  grain,  flexible,  elastic,  splitting  rea-
dily, and  incorruptible.  It  isof  a  fine  orange-
red  or  deep-brown;  and  the  sapwood,
-wlilch  does  not  extend  to  a  very  great
depth.  Is  white  and  also  very  hard.  The
fineness  of  its  grain  is  owing  to  the  thin-
ness of  its  annual  layers  (for  the  yew  is  a
tree  of  exceedingly  slow  growth)— 280  of
these  being  sometimes  found  in  apiece
not  more  than  twenty  Inches  in  diameter.
