n, mint, dill, lily, attorlothe, pulegium, marrubium, dock,
elder, fel terrae, wormwood, strawberry leaves, consolida; pour them over
with ale, add holy water, sing this charm over them thrice [here follow
some long charms which I need not extract]; these charms a man may sing
over a wound" ("Leech Book," iii. 63).

I need say little of the uses of the Yew wood in furniture, nor of the
many grand specimens of the tree which are scattered throughout the
churchyards of England, except to say that "the origin of planting Yew
trees in churchyards is still a subject of considerable perplexity. As
the Yew was of such great importance in war and field sports before the
use of gunpowder was known, perhaps the parsons of parishes were
required to see that the churchyard was capable of supplying bows to the
males of each parish of proper age; but in this case we should scarcely
have been left without some evidence on the matter. Others again state
that the trees in question were intended solely to furnish branches for
use on Palm Sunday"[329:1] (_see_ PALM, p. 195), "while many suppose
that the Yew was naturally selected for planting around churches on
account of its emblematic character, as expressive of the solemnity of
death, while, from its perennial verdure and long duration, it might be
regarded as a pattern of immortality."--_Penny Magazine_, 1843.

A good list of the largest and oldest Yews in England will be found in
Loudon's "Arboretum."

* * * * *

The "dismal Yew" concludes the list of Shakespeare's plants and the
first part of my proposed subject; and while I hope that those readers
who may have gone with me so far have met with some things to interest
them, I hope also they will agree with me that gardening and the love of
flowers is not altogether the modern accomplishment that many of our
gardeners now fancy it to be. Here are two hundred names of plants in
one writer, and that writer not at all writing on horticulture, but only
mentioning plants and flowers in the most incidental manner as they
happened naturally to fall in his way. I should doubt if there is any
similar instance in any modern English writer, and feel very sure that
there is no such instance in any modern English dramatist. It shows how
familiar gardens and flowers were to Shakespeare, and that he must have
had frequent opportunities for observing his favourites (for most surely
he was fond of flowers), not only