YEW-TREES

live to an age of aoo or 500 years, but the ‘ you sands of years' claimed for the ‘ Darley Dale’ and the ‘Fort in gal* yews is absurd. Yew wood was the favourite material for the grand old English bow, which ivon Crecy, Poictiers, and Agin court, mainly because it could easily be kept dry in a case like an umbrella-case, while the French ‘fiddle’ or ‘cro ’ bow could not. The idea that the red berries of the yew are poisonous is incorrect; but the error is a useful one, as the ‘ seeds ’ are very poisonous.