Dear Graham,
I followed up your suggestion about consulting with a colleague, Peter
Scott of Memorial's Biology Dept, about the reputed power of yews to
absorb noxious vapours. Here is his, basically negative, reply:
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'All trees absorb things out of the air but Yew is not remarkable in
this respect, as far as I know.
I looked through some herb books that I have and found nothing. The
generic name, Taxus, is from the Greek for yew-tree so nothing there. I
looked through Christian symbology but nothing. My suspicions would be
that this is from the Druids. They had very religious feelings about
many trees (e.g. oaks and mistletoe) and I suspect that a reverence for
yews was transferred into Christianity - there are many examples of
this.
That's the best that I can do.'
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Perhaps somebody has further thoughts?
Cheers,
Martin Howley
Martin Howley, Humanities Librarian, Tel: (709) 737-8514
QE II Library, Memorial Univ of Newfoundland FAX: (709) 737-2153
St John's, NFLD, Canada A1B 3Y1 E-mail:[log in to unmask]
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On Tue, 28 Sep 1999 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Don't snigger, now, but I'm going to ask the obvious question. Could there be
> anything in this? Is there a tree doctor in the house? Seriously, does any list
> member have a friend in botany who could point us in the right direction?
> Where's Oliver Rackham at the moment?
>
>
>
> > Perhaps Geoffrey Grigson's account, which quotes Turner's _Botonologia:> The British Physician_, 1664, of the reason yews were planted in
> > churchyards, will be of interest to you. Turner says that the yew was set
> > in churchyards not, 'as some superstitious monks have imagined,' because
> > it could drive away devils, but because it 'attracts and imbibes
> > putrefaction and gross oleaginous vapours exhaled out of graves...'
>
> > Martin Howley
>
> Graham Jones
> Leicester
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