CHAP. CII. SALICA‘CEH. SA‘LIX. 1507 
basket willow.” Mr. Forbes received it from Megsrs. Loddiges, under the 
name of S. Meyeridna; which species, he says, is readily distinguished from 
S. lucida by its much larger leaves, and shorter obtuse catkins. There are 
plants in the Goldworth Arboretum, and in the salictum at Woburn. 
Group v. Frdgiles Borrer. 
Trees, with their Twigs mostly brittle at the Joints. 
Stamens 2 to a flower. Ovary glabrous, elongated, seated upon a more or 
less obvious stalk. Flowers very loosely disposed in the catkin. Leaves 
lanceolate, serrated, glabrous, stipuled. The plants, trees of considerable 
size. (Hook. Br. Fl., ed. 2., adapted.) 
¥ 19. S. BaByLo’NIcA L. The Babylonian, or weeping, Willow. 
ay yn Lin. Sp. Pl., 1443,; Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p. 671. ; Smith in Rees’s Cyclo., No. 42.; Forbes + 
in Sal. Wob., No. 22.; Koch Comm., p. 17., note; Pursh Fl. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 614. 
Synonymes. 8S. propéndens Sering. Sal. Hel., p.'73. (Koch) ; S. orientalis, &c., Tourn. ; S. arabica, 
&c., C. Bauh, ; Saule pleureur, Parasol du grand Seigneur, Fr.; Trauer Weide, Thranen Weide, 
Ger. 
The Sexes. The female is figured in Sal. Wob. ;'the male is not known, in a living state, in Britain 
unless it be S. b. Napoledna, as suggested in p. 1513. 
Engravings. Rauw. It., 25. 183.; Sal. Wob., No. 22.; our jig. 22. in p. 1607.; and the plates of this 
treein our last Volume. 
Spec. Char., &c. eaves lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrated, glabrous ; 
glaucous beneath. Catkins protruded at the same time as the leaves. 
Ovary ovate, sessile, glabrous. (Willd. Sp. Pl.,4 p.671.) A native of 
Asia, on the banks of the Euphrates, near Babylon, whence its name; and 
also of China, and other parts of Asia; and of Egypt, and other parts of 
the north of Africa. It is said to have been first brought into England by 
Mr. Vernon, a merchant at Aleppo, who sent it to his seat at Twickenham 
Park, at about 1730, where it was seen growing by the celebrated Peter 
Collinson, in 1748. In the Hortus Kewensis, the date of its introduction is 
given as 1692; but no particulars are stated respecting it. Delille, in 
a note to his L’ Homme des Champs, says that Tournefort first introduced 
it into Europe; and some authors, on the authority of the St. James’s 
Chronicle for August, 1801, assert that Pope introduced it into England, 
and that his favourite tree at Twickenham was the first planted in this 
country. The story is, that Pope, happening to be with Lady Suffolk, 
when that lady received a present from Spain, or, according to some, from 
Turkey, observed that some of the pieces of withy bound round it appeared 
as though they would vegetate ; and, taking them up said, “ Perhaps these 
may produce something that we have not in England.” Whereupon, the 
story adds, he planted one of them in his garden at Twickenham ; which 
became the weeping willow, afterwards so celebrated. This paper was 
published about the time that Pope’s willow was cut down, because the 
possessor of his villa was annoyed by persons asking to see it. The most 
probable of these stories appears to be, that the tree was brought to 
Europe by Tournefort. It is now universally cultivated wherever it will 
stand the open air, not only in Europe, but in Asia, and in the civilised 
parts of Africa: it is also a “a favourite in North America. That this 
tree is a favourite one in China, and also very common in that country, 
appears from the frequent representations of it that are found on porcelain, 
tea-chests, &c. It is also pictured in a view of the village of Tonnan, drawn 
by John’ Nicohoff, July 3. 1655, on his way to Pekin, with the embassy 
which the Dutch sent to the Emperor of China in that year. (Syl. Flor., 2. 
p. 265.) That the Chinese use it in their planted garden scenery, along 
with other ornamental trees, is evident, from the published views of the 
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