316 



THE WILLOW. 



generally hidden from sight ; but in winter they are often 

 to he seen on the extremities of the branches, each con- 

 taining a number of small white 

 larvse. They are of the same 

 colour as the bark, and of a 

 corky consistence ; but when 

 once formed, they have no 

 vegetative power, the twigs 

 which seemingly pass through 

 them being always withered 

 and dead. 



Willows are common in the 

 East, and are frequently men- 

 tioned in the Bible, as in the 

 passages already quoted, and in 

 the Book of Job xl. 22, where 

 Behemoth is said to be com- 

 passed about with Willows 

 of the brook. Ezekiel (xvii. 5), 

 in his figurative description of 

 the last branch of the house 

 of Judah, says that a great 

 eagle cropped off the topmost 

 twig of a Cedar-tree, and set 

 it by great waters as a Willow- 

 tree. 



Rauwolf states that near 

 " Halepo (Aleppo), about the 

 rivulets, there is a peculiar 

 sort of Willow-trees, called 

 Saf-caf, &c. These are not all alike in bigness and height, 

 and in their stems and twigs they are not very unlike to 

 Birch-trees (which are long, thin, weak, and of a pale 

 yellow colour) : they have soft ash-coloured leaves, or 

 rather like unto the leaves of the Poplar-tree; and on 

 their twigs here and there are shoots of a span long, like 

 unto those of the Cypriotish wild Fig-tree, which put 



WILLOW GALI 



