AMENTIFERyT:. 209 



to the far-famed willow, and says, " The magnitude of this tree is surprising, especially 

 when the general character of its congeners is considered. The trunk at six feet above 

 the ground measures twenty-one feet in girth, and extends twenty feet in height of 

 that vast size before dividing into enormous ramifications. The whole trunk, thus 

 comprising about 130 feet of solid timber, continues pei'fectly sound, and the very ex- 

 tensive head shows unimpaired vigour. A younger plant (though a full-sized tree) 

 in the adjoining meadow promises to sustain the reputation of its sire." In the 

 November of the same year of Dr. Withering's visit, 1810, many of the branches were 

 swept away by a violent storm, and nearly half of what remained of the tree fell to 

 the ground in August, 1815, leaving little more than its stupendous trunk and a few 

 side boughs. In 1825 a fire was made by some boys in the hollow of the trunk, 

 which would probably have consumed it, had not Mr. Stringer, whose garden nearly 

 adjoins it, seen the flames, and sent off to the town for the fire-engines. In April, 

 1829, the tree was blown down in a violent storm, which took place on the 29th of the 

 month, about three o'clock in the afternoon. After this event, the proprietor of the 

 ground on which the tree stood, regretting that there was no young tree to plant in 

 its stead, recollected that a branch had been blown off the tree before, and used for 

 pea-sticks in his garden. Examining them, he found that one had taken root, and he 

 had it at once removed, and planted on the site of the old tree in fresh soil, giving a 

 dinner on the occasion to his friends and the admirers of Johnson. The timber of 

 S. Russelliana or 8. viridis, as it is called in our present work, is the most valuable of 

 any of the willow tribe. 



The Babylonian or weeping willow belongs to this group of willows, and is pecu- 

 liarly the poet's willow. It is asserted that the poet Pope first introduced it into 

 England, and planted it in his garden at Twickenham. The story is, that Pope, 

 happening to be with Lady Suffolk when she received a present from Spain, or, 

 according to some, frora Turkey, observing that some of the pieces bound round it 

 appeared as though they would vegetate, took them up, saying, "Perhaps these may 

 produce something we have not in England." Whereupon he planted one which 

 became the celebrated weeping willow of the Twickenham garden. Other authors 

 say that the tree was brought to Europe by Tournefort. It is now universally culti- 

 vated, and almost naturalised in England. The weeping willow is the emblem of 

 grief, and is employed in many countries as such in cemeteries and near mausoleums, 

 frequently taking the place of the cypress with this object. It conveys rather the 

 idea of grief with hope for the future, than the thick heavy foliage of the cypress, 

 which inspires only gloomy thought. The willow which grew over the grave of 

 Napoleon Buonaparte in St. Helena was one of this species, and many hundred cuttings 

 from this identical tree are now distributed throughout Europe. 



This Eastern willow is doubtless the one to which frequent reference is made in the 

 sacred writings. The Psalmist writes, " By the waters of Babylon we sat down and 

 wept when we remembered thee, O Sion ! As for our harps, we hanged them upon 

 the willow trees that are therein." The legendary origin of the weeping willow, 

 according to the Arabian story, is as follows : — After David had married Bathsheba, he 

 was one day playing on his harp in his private chamber, when two strangers entered 

 unseen by any one. They were angels, who made him convict himself of his crime, 

 and convinced him of his great g-uilt. For forty days and nights he lay mourning 

 and weeping on the ground, and shedding bitter tears of repentance. As many tears 

 of repentance as the whole human race have shed, and will shed, on account of their 

 sins, from the time of David to the Judgment Day, so many did David weep in those 

 forty days, all the while moaning forth psalms of penitence. But the tears from his 

 VOL. VIII. E E 



