CATKIX-BEARINCt tribe 165 



familiar proverb. Old Fuller, referring to the Willow, says : " A sad tree, 

 whereof such as have lost their love make their mourning garlands ; and we 

 know that exiles hung their harps on such doleful supporters." He adds, 

 that it o-rows so incredibly fast that there was a " byeword in Buckingham- 

 shire, that the profit by AYillows will buy their owner a horse, before that 

 any other tree will pay for his saddle." "Let me add," he says, "that if 

 greene ash may burne before a queene, withered Willows may be allowed 

 to burn before a lady." Chattertou has a song, of which the burden runs 



thus : — 



" Mie love ys dedde, 

 Gon' to his deathe-bedde 

 Al under the Wyllowe-tree," 



Herrick, too, says of the Willow : — 



' ' Thou art to all lost love the best, 

 The only true plant found, 

 Wherewith young men and maids, distrest 

 And left of love, are crown'd. 



" When once the lover's rose is dead, 

 Or laid aside forlorn, 

 Then willow-garlands round the head 

 Bedew'd witli tears are worn." 



Most of the Willows are fertilized by the agency of the wind as a pollen 

 carrier (anemophilous), but the Goat Willow and its varieties are fertilized by 

 bees and moths. 



The very beautiful variety of this tree, the Kilmarnock AYillow, has of 

 late years much interested ' botanists. It received its name, not because 

 peculiar to the place, but because reared in the nursery -garden there. An 

 enthusiastic botanist of Ayr, Mr. James Smith, sent to Mr. Lang of Kilmar- 

 nock, about fifty years since, a plant of this beautiful tree. He did not 

 state on what spot he found it, and as he died shortly afterwards, the locality 

 in which it grew remained unknown ; though, as the Goat Willow is a com- 

 mon plant all over Scotland, he, in all probability, found the variety growino- 

 wild. Mr. Lang, at a later season, had procured from Mr. Smith a few more 

 plants, Avhich he has since been engaged in propagating ; and, in 1852, nearly 

 a thousand plants of this beautiful W^illow were purchased from him by . 

 Sir W. J. Hooker, for the Botanic Gardens of Kew. 



This variety of the Willow has broad, glossy, deep-green leaves, and it 

 flowers very freely in spring. Its branches are stouter than those of the 

 Weeping Willow (S. habi/hmira), but it is a true weeping species, its branches 

 always bending gracefully down ; and it is the only native Willow which 

 really deserves to be so called, for the AVillows so often ovei'hanging streams 

 in gardens and parks are species introduced from other lands. The Weeping 

 A\'illow (S. hahjlonica) was probably brought into this country by Tournefort, 

 though often said to have been first planted by Pope at his villa at Twicken- 

 ham. This graceful tree is grown now in all European countries, as well as 

 in Asia and Africa. The Chinese greatly esteem it in their ornamental 

 scenery, as we may see by their pictures and porcelain ; and in Arabia, on 

 festive occasions, a sprig of this Willow is placed among the bouquets of 



