WILLIAM W. KING.

Instead of troubling you with a particular answer to MR. WARDE'S inquiry,
let me refer him to the _Forest Trees of Britain_, by the Rev. C. A. Johns,
p 297. _et seq._, where, among many other curious and interesting facts, he
will find the various reasons assigned by different authors, ancient and
modern, for the plantation of yew-trees in churchyards. I do not find,
however, that the origin ingeniously assigned by MR. WARDE is among the
number.

[Phi].

I have always supposed, but I know not upon what authority, that the custom
of planting yew-trees in churchyards originated in the idea of supplying
the yeomen of the parish with bows, in the good old archery days.

IGNORAMUS.

* * * * *

STARS ARE THE FLOWERS OF HEAVEN.

(Vol. vii. _passim._)

I sent a Note to "N. & Q" some time ago, expressing my conviction that the
original _locale_ of this beautiful idea was in St. Chrysostom. but, as I
could not then give a reference to the passage which contained it, my
suggestion was of course not definite enough to call for attention. I am
now able to vindicate to the "golden-mouthed" preacher of Antioch this
expression of poetic fancy, the origination of which has excited, and
deservedly, so much inquiry among the readers of "N. & Q." It occurs in
Homily X., "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch. I transcribe the passage
from the translation in _The Library of the Fathers_:

"Follow me whilst I enumerate the meadows, the gardens, the flowering
tribes; all sorts of herbs and their uses, their odours, forms,
disposition; yea, but their very names; the trees which are fruitful
and the barren; the nature of metals; that of animals, in the sea or on
the land; of those that swim and those that traverse the air; the
mountains, the forests, the groves; _the meadow below and the meadow
above_; _for there is a meadow on the earth_, _and a meadow too in the
sky_, THE VARIOUS FLOWERS OF THE STARS; the rose below, and the rainbow
above!... Contemplate with me the beauty of the sky; how it has been
preserved so long without being dimmed, and remains as bright and clear
as if it had been only fabricated to-day; moreover the power of the
earth, how its womb has not become effete by bringing forth during so
long a time!" &c. Homily X., "On the Statues," pp. 178-9.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

P.S.--Are the following lines, which c