154 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[May, 



Iconic locale, I retraced my steps along the steep 

 hillside road which picturesquely winds down to 

 Jamestown and the deep blue sea. 



While the willow twigs from Longvvood were 

 fresh, comparisons were made with others taken 

 from some of the numerous specimens of S. Baby- 

 lonica, so luxuriantly growing in the many gardens 

 and grounds around. As thus carefully com- 

 pared, there did not appear to be the slightest dif- 

 ference between them, except the color of the bark 

 on the young shoots was more rubicund than on 

 those of the sickly old trees by the side of Napo- 

 leon's tomb at Longvvood. But my experience in 

 such matters readily accounted for the cause. 

 That this slight difference of color has often been 

 the means of misleading many people, I have 

 every reason to believe, as the sequel will show. 



No matter what mere opinions may have previ- 

 ously been when maintaining there were two kinds, 

 scientific facts have since decided that S. Napo- 

 leona ( so called ) is a myth. To quote the emphatic 

 language of the editor: "Napoleon's willow is the 

 female plant. Nothing but the female has been 

 anywhere grown till the introduction recently of S. 

 Japonica, which is the male form of the same. 

 And Napoleon's willow is simply the willow from 

 Napoleon's tomb, and is really S. Babylonica, or 

 weeping willow." 



From the history of the original Napoleon weep- 

 ing willow, it seems to have been a fair sized tree 

 when the exile first landed from H. M. S. North- 

 umberland, in 1815, and was no doubt introduced 

 with other trees from England some time about 

 1810. 



During my stay on the Island I met the cele- 

 brated old soldier Tom Evans, who claimed to have 

 been Napoleon's gardener at Longwood House. 

 And a more loquacious soldier or garrulous gar- 

 dener I should think never shouldered a musket or 

 handled a spade. This remarkable man, of spear 

 and pruning hook fame, was one of the Peninsula 

 heroes when but a youth of nineteen years of 

 age, and was justly proud of the part he per- 

 formed in the military achievements of Wellington. 

 It was his misfortune to lose an eye at Toulouse, 

 and after Waterloo he accompanied his regiment, 

 which guarded Napoleon at St. Helena. From 

 my informant's account, "Bony," as he always 

 called him, "was a morose and melancholy man, 

 and, who cared not a gun-flint for a garden; but 

 madame, wife of Gen. Bertrand, did, and took 

 great delight in the cultivation of flowers." The 

 same lady planted several willows by the ex-em- 

 peror's grave, raised from cuttings- of the original 



one, which was destroyed by a hurricane which 

 swept furiously over the Island soon after Napo- 

 leon's death. And it is probable the two much 

 mutilated trees the writer saw are the only sur- 

 vivors left. 



As regards the right or wrong kind of Napoleon 

 willows which travelers take away, it only remains 

 for me to show how they are likely to be deceived in 

 the matter. No sooner does the stranger wend his 

 way towards the landing place at the foot of James- 

 town, than he is beset with a noisy multitude of 

 willow venders, whose clamorous importunities to 

 purchase are beyond description. Such a com- 

 mercial spirit as is evinced by the Island gamins, 

 big and little, is more remarkable than pleasant, 

 especially if the luckless wayfarer is not disposed 

 to buy. They seem to have a large stock of well- 

 rooted plants, growing in jars, cigar boxes, paint 

 kegs, &c., in readiness for the siege. And, as if 

 the sole aim of life was to sell the voyager a Na- 

 poleonic souvenir, they persistently pester and 

 plague him into buying. And no sooner does the 

 stranger yield to temptation than the harpies surge 

 around him, en masse, loudly vociferating he has 

 been swindled. With a seeming virtuous indigna- 

 tion the transaction is pronounced a shameful 

 fraud. Sorely perplexed, while badgered about to 

 understand the meaning of so furious a hubbub 

 about so small a matter, the hapless victim is 

 forced to believe he has unwittingly bought the 

 wrong sort, the Jamestown instead of the Long- 

 wood kind. Feeling chagrined at the motley 

 ragamuffins' duplicity, some more of the right kind 

 has to be bought, and with which the outraged 

 purchaser runs the gauntlet as best he can, to the 

 friendly boat awaiting. The next surprise in re- 

 serve to astonish the bewildered bonhomie, is the 

 discovery of so many little willow groves, much 

 like his own, scattered about the ship, among 

 which he staggers, much amazed at the senseless 

 sailors cursing the blasted rubbish. Leaning 

 against the taffrail to take a last sad look at the 

 lonely Isle where naught besides the willow 



weepeth 



"O'er that silent spot."' 



the writer thanked God for his safety. Standing by 



my side I noticed a middle-aged, unhappy-looking 



man, who, assuming a theatrical attitude, shook his 



dexter finger at the sons of Belial on the strand, 



and soliloquizingly exclaimed, "I was a stranger, 



and ye took me in." 



The chronicler since then, has often wondered 



how many of the hundreds thus imported are 



! afterwards identified as the real Napoleon willows. 



