324 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Palm. {Salix cinerea, Grey Sallow.) 



This tree, in some parts of Kent, is called by the common people Palm, 

 which on hearing led me to consider why it was so called. I thought as 

 it came so early into bloom, or catkins, the branches might have been used 

 by the early Christians to symbolize Palm Sunday, the anniversary of the 

 day on which our Saviour entered Jerusalem, and was met by a multitude 

 of people bearing branches of Palms and singing " Osanna in excelsis." 

 Palm Sunday is the sixth Sunday in Lent, and the next before Easter, and 

 I think this Willow is the most conspicuous of our trees which shows the 

 earliest indications of spring by its foliage and bloom. I should like to 

 know if this tree is called Palm in other parts of England. 



T find, on referring to the ' Glossary of Dates, Charters, and Customs of 

 the Middle Ages,' by R. T. Hampson, under Palm Sunday, the following 

 interesting note taken from the Cott. MS. Claud. A ii. fo. 52. The old 

 sermon for ' Dominica in Eamis Palm arum' has the following account 

 of the day : — " Gode Cryston men and women, ze know welle all this day 

 is calde Palme Sonnenday : than wyste Ihu tha hist passion was negh, and 

 tooke Lazar w* him, and so ryding on asse hi zode towerde Jeruslem, 

 and whanne the pepul herdun that alle zode azennes him, bothe for wondur 

 of the man that was reysed from deth to lyve, and also for to done Cryste 

 worchep, wherfore many haddon flowres in his way, and many broken 

 braunches of olyfe and of palme and keston in the way, and spreddon 

 clothus in the way, mixing melody and sungynge thus : Blessed be 

 thu, etc. ; but for encheson we have non olyfe that berotli grene leves, 

 we takon in stede of hit lieiv and palmes wyth, and beroth aboute in pro- 

 cess, and so this day we callyn Palme Sonnenday.'" 



I think we may read pahnes wyth, for withy, which is one of the names 

 of the Willow, and hew is of course our yew. 



I expect that some of your readers will be able to inform me when this 

 ceremony of strewing branches by the early churches commenced, and 

 when it was discontinued. 



S. Beisly. 



Communications have been received from, 



James Lothian ; John Sim ; Sidney Beisley ; E. J. Ashfield ; Tom Stans- 

 field ; W. Pamplin; W. Richardson, jun. ; J. R. A. Briggs ; F. Y. Brocas ; 

 W. Winter ; Richard Smith ; Archibald Jerdon ; J. S. M. ; John Lloyd ; 

 G. Erost ; E. Reynolds. 



BOOKS, &c., RECEIVED FOR REVIEW. 



The Chemist and. Druggist, May \hth. 



Notes on Books. 



The Perth Reporter, May 2^th. 



The Preston Chronicle, May 29^/i. 



Jackson s Oxford Juurnal, May \%lh. 



The Chemist and Druggist, June \^th. 



The Lyttelton Times (New ZealandJ, Ap-il Srd, 1861. 



