Pteridophytes and Conifers 67TAXACEAE
Taxus baccata Linnaeus
yew
Europe, mountains of central Asia and North Africa, close allies else-
where in northern temperate zone; introduced into New Zealand
Var ious explanations have been put forward to explain the custom of plant-
ing Taxus baccata in churchyards, some more convincing than others, but it
appears to have been generally overlooked that there might be some natural
property of the species itselfwhich caused it to be valued more directly in
connection with death. In ‘some parts of England’ there was a practice in the
early nineteenth century of sponging corpses immediately after decease with
an infusion of fresh yew leaves, which was claimed to preserve the body from
putrefaction for many weeks.^107
In Britain the only other recorded uses of this tree appear to have been in
Lincolnshire, where its twigs were steeped in tea and the resulting liquid
drunk to remedy trouble with the kidneys,^108 and in unstated areas an infu-
sion was given as an abortifacient by midwives—with at least one death to its
discredit.^109
Ireland, too, has supplied only a solitary localised record: an application
to ringworm in Kildare.^110
Notes
- Lightfoot, ii, 689
- Henderson & Dickson, 93
- e.g. Anon.,Phytologist,n.s. 3 (1859),
202–12 - Carmichael ii, 298; Pratt 1859, 128
- Hunt, 415, who identifies the spe-
cies used there as Lycopodiella inun-
data (Linnaeus) Holub, but that
may be merely a guess. Though now
rare in Cornwall, this was probably
the commonest clubmoss there
formerly. - Beith
- McDonald, 136
- Williams MS
- Beith
- Quayle, 70
- Vickery MSS
- Jamieson
- Quayle, 70
14.Phytologist,4 (1853), 976 - Pratt 1859, 122; Britten 1881b, 182
16.Phytologist,4 (1853), 976 - Gutch & Peacock
- Pratt 1859, 122
- Folkard, 207
- Lightfoot, 652
- ‘E.C.’
- Hole, 14
- Ray 1670, 199
- Hodgson, 371
25.Phytologist,5 (1854), 30 - Macdonald
- McNeill