394 . SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" From Britain's painted sons I came, 

 And basket is my barbarous name. 

 Yet now I am so modish grown, 

 That Rome would claim me for her own*." 



The Romans used twigs of Willow to bind their vines : 

 this, and their being used for various sorts of wicker- 

 work, gives occasion to Virgil to notice the twigs it 

 affords, as he speaks of the leaves of the elm with which 

 cattle were fed : 



" Viminibus salices foecundae, frondibus ulmi :" 



Georgic ii. 



" The willows abound with twigs, the elm with leaves." 



MARTYN. 



The Spanish poet, Garcilasso, dedicates the Willow 

 to his mistress, which appears rather an equivocal com- 

 pliment : 



" For Daphne's laurel Phoebus gave his voice, 



The towering poplar charmed stern Hercules; 

 The myrtle sweet, whose gifted flowers rejoice 



Young hearts in love, did most warm Venus please ; 

 The little green willow is my Flerid's choice, 



She gathers it amidst a thousand trees : 

 Thus laurel, poplar, and sweet myrtle now, 

 Where'er it grows, shall to the willow bow." 



WIFFEN'S Garcilasso. 



Some of the smallest trees known are Willows; nay, 

 the smallest tree known, without any exception. Several 

 of the species do not exceed a foot in height ; but the 

 Herbaceous Willow, Salix herbacea, is seldom higher 

 than three inches, sometimes not more than two; and 



* This ib a curious instance of the antiquity of the word basket, 

 which may fairly be derived from hascauda. 



