CHAP. cm. .SAT-ICA CE.i:. i'A^LIX. 1511 



ing to some, this is a distinct species, indigenous to the island; and others 

 even assert that it is not a willow at all. Being anxious to procure correct 

 information as to the tree at St. Helena, we sent a letter to the Morning 

 Chronicle, which appeared in that journal on Sept. 5. 1836. We received 

 a great many answers; some dried specimens; a number of drawings and 

 engravings, either lent or given ; and one living plant. The result of the 

 whole, as far as it is worth making public, is as follows; — No species of 

 willow is indigenous to St. Helena; but about 1810, or before, when 

 General Beatson was governor there, he, being fond of planting, had a great 

 many forest trees and shrubs introduced from Britain ; and though, as 

 appears by the St. Helena Gazette for 1811-12, he had the greatest diffi- 

 culty in preserving his plantations from the numerous goats which abounded 

 in the island, yet several of the trees survived, and attained a timber-like 

 size. Among these was the tree of 5alix babylonica, which has since been 

 called Napoleon's willow. This tree grew among other trees, on the side 

 of a valley near a spring; and, having attracted the notice of Napoleon, he 

 had a seat placed under it, and used to go and sit there very frequently, 

 and have water brought to him from the adjoining fountain. About the time 

 of Napoleon's detith, in 1821, a storm, it is said, shattered the willow in 

 pieces; and, after the interment of the emperor, Madame Bertrand planted 

 several cuttings of this tree on the outside of the raihng which surrounds 

 the grave ; and placed within it, on the stone, several flower-pots with 

 heartsease and forget-me-not. In 1828, we are informed, the willows 

 were found in a dying state ; and twenty-eight young ones were, in conse- 

 quence, placed near the tomb, which was at that time surrounded with a 

 profusion of scarlet-blossomed pelargoniums. A correspondent, who was at 

 St. Helena in 1834, says one of the willows was then in a flourishing con- 

 dition ; but another, who was there in 1835, describes it as going fast to 

 decay, owing to the number of pieces carried away by visitors. In what 

 year a cutting from this willow was brought to England for the first time 

 we have not been able to ascertain ; but it appears probable that it 

 may have been in the year 1823, and that one of the oldest plants is that 

 in the garden of the Roebuck tavern on Richmond Hill, which, as it appears 

 by the inscription on a white marble tablet affixed to it, was taken from 

 the tree in that year. Since that period, it has become fashionable to 

 possess a plant of the true Napoleon's willow ; and, in consequence, a great 

 many cuttings have been imported, and a number of plants sold by the 

 London nurserymen. There are now trees of it in a great many places. 

 There is a handsome small one in the Horticultural Society's Garden ; one 

 atKew; several at Messrs. Loddiges's; some in the Twickenham Botanic 

 Garden ; one in the garden of Captain Stevens, Beaumont Square, Mile 

 End ; one in the garden of Mr. Knight, at Canonbury Place, Islington, 

 brought over in 1824 ; one in the garden of No. 2. Lee Place, Levvisham, 

 Kent ; one in the garden of No. 1. Porchester Terrace; one in the garden 

 of S. C. Hall, Esq., Elm Grove, Kensington Gravel Pits; one, a very 

 flourishing and large tree, in the garden of Mrs. Lawrence, Drayton Green ; 

 one at Clayton Priory, near Brighton; one at Allesley Rectory, near Co- 

 ventry; several at Chatsworth ; and there are various others in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London, and in different parts of the country. In ornamental 

 plantations, the weeping willow has the most harmonious effect when in- 

 troduced among trees of shapes as unusual as its own ; partly of the same 

 kind, as the weeping birch, and partly of contrasted forms, as the Lombardy 

 poplar ; and the effect of these three trees is always good when accom- 

 panied by water, either in a lake, as in^Jg. 1.305., or in a stream and water- 

 fall, as in^^'. 1306. Both these views are of scenery in the park at Monza. 

 (See£«rj/r. of Gard., ed. 1835, p. 36.) Fig. 1037. is an example of the use 

 of trees having drooping branches, and others having vertical branches, such 

 as the Lombardy poplar, in contrasting with and harmonising horizontal lines. 

 (See Gnrd. Mag., vol. i. p. 117.) For further remarks on the use of the 



