Part 16

Some people believe that the Yew tree is planted in churchyards because it is poisonous and is associated with death; while others think just the opposite, and say that it is placed among the tombstones to remind us that the soul is undying, like the Yew tree leaves.

In February or March if you strike a Yew tree bough with a stick you will see clouds of fine yellow powder rising from the tree. This powder is the stamen dust, and if you pull a spray of leaves and examine it you will discover clusters of small oval yellow flowers (3) nestling close to the main stem where the leaf joins it. The Yew tree belongs to the great family of trees whose fruit is a cone and which bear their flowers in catkins. Take a magnifying-glass, and it will show you that each catkin is composed of a bunch of stamens rising from a slender pillar at the foot of which are a few dry, papery scales. Each stamen has six dust-bags at the end, and when the stamen powder is ripe these dust-bags open, and the fine yellow powder is blown like meal over the leaves and seeds.

The Yew tree has seed flowers (4) as well as those which bear the stamens. Usually they grow on a different tree, but occasionally you will find them on the same Yew, but on a separate branch. It is a curious thing about the Yew tree and its relations that these seeds are not covered in any way, but lie naked to the sun and rain. They always grow on the under-side of the stem, and at first they look like tiny acorns. You notice a small disc surrounded by a few scales, and on this disc sits the little green acorn with its olive green skin. This acorn is waiting for the stamen dust to reach it. As soon as the wind has blown the yellow powder over it a beautiful cup of pale pink wax grows round the green seed. There is no hard, woody cone on the Yew tree; the fruit (5) is this pale pink waxen berry, shaped like a fairy cup and filled with sticky juice. The walls of the pink cup are soft and fleshy, and you can just see the tip of the green seed standing up in the centre. They are very lovely, these waxy pink berries on the dark green spray, but they are said to be poisonous.

Sometimes at the end of a Yew spray there grows a curious-looking cone like a small artichoke, made of soft green leaves. This is caused by a tiny gnat which lays its eggs in a Yew tree bud, and in some strange way that we do not understand causes it to develop this tuft of strange leaves. You will remember that in the Oak a similar growth is found.

The wood of the Yew tree is very hard and durable, as are all woods which grow slowly. “A Yew tree post will outlast a post of iron” is a saying often repeated by farmers; but the Yew wood is not much in demand for manufacturing purposes.

PLATE XIX

THE JUNIPER

In the Bible we read that when Elijah fled from the cruel persecution of King Ahab and the wicked Queen Jezebel, he sat down under a Juniper tree to rest. When we look at the Juniper as it grows in this country, we wonder how the prophet could have found rest beside such a prickly tree, or shade beneath such a small one. But in other lands the Juniper grows much taller; and as all books about trees give it a place beside its relations the Yew and the Scotch Pine, it must be included among the common trees you should learn to know.

THE JUNIPER

1. Juniper Bushes 2. Leaf Spray with Flowers 3. Stamen Flower (much enlarged) 4. Seed Flower (much enlarged) 5. Spray with Fruit]

In Britain the Juniper (1) is found on heathy commons or high on the upland plains, where it flourishes as a large, thick, bushy shrub, and occasionally shoots up into a small tree. It is rather a gloomy-looking tree: in spring time, when most of our trees look fresh and bright in their young green leaves, the Juniper shows little change. Its leaves are evergreen, and the new leaves grow in small tufts at the tips of the branches, so that you scarcely notice them.

The Juniper bark is dark reddish brown, and it flakes off in small pieces in the same way as the Yew tree bark. The branches are small and thin, and they clothe the trunk close to the very ground; it would be difficult to sit comfortably under a Juniper tree in this country. Like the Yew, it is a very slow-growing tree.

Juniper leaves (2) are not in the least like ordinary leaves: they are more like thorns than leaves, and they are not easy to gather. But if you examine a spray carefully you will find that each leaf is like a narrow flat spear with a sharp point at the end. Each leaf has a slight groove cut from end to end in the upper side, which is dark green, very smooth and glossy. Notice how curiously the leaves are grouped on the spray. They are placed in incomplete circles of three, and there is always a short space between each of the circles.

Juniper flowers are of two kinds, and they usually grow on separate trees, though sometimes you may find both kinds on separate branches of the same tree. The stamen flowers (3) are in full bloom in May, and you will find them growing in small scaly catkins close to the foot of the leaf where it joins the stem. The heads of the stamens stand like a row of small yellow beads along the edge of each scale, and when they are ripe the beads burst and the leaves around are covered with their fine yellow powder.

The seed flowers (4) also grow at the foot of the leaves, and at first you might mistake them for young buds. They have thicker and more fleshy scales than those of the stamen catkins, and after the yellow stamen dust is blown by the wind on to their seed-vessels the upper scales grow into a green berry (5). These green berries remain in the tree all through the winter, and the following summer they change into a deep purplish black. Each berry has a soft grey bloom all over it, like the bloom on a grape.

These berries are very bitter to taste, but are not poisonous; in some illnesses country people use them successfully as a medicine.

Many are the uses of the Juniper, and in olden days it was highly valued.

THE LARCH

1. Larch Tree 2. Leaf Tufts 3. Stamen Catkins 4. Seed Catkins 5. Young Cone 6. Ripe Cone]

In Sweden the berries are eaten to breakfast; sometimes they are roasted and ground into coffee.

The wood and its berries may be burnt in sick-rooms to purify the air and refresh the patient. Country people believed that burning sprays of Juniper kept away witches, and the smoke was supposed to drive away serpents, as well as to destroy any germs of plague or other infectious disease.

In Scotland the smoke from a Juniper fire is used for curing hams.

In Lapland the peasants make ropes from the Juniper bark, and they tell you that if a bit of Juniper wood is lighted and then carefully covered with ashes it will keep alight for a whole year.

The trunk of the Juniper tree is too small and slight to be very useful as timber; but good walking-sticks are often made from the branches and young stems.

PLATE XX

THE LARCH

“When rosy plumelets tuft the larch.”

--Tennyson.