POPLAR AND WILLOW 



Vernon, a merchant at Aleppo, Turkey, who planted 

 it at his seat in Twickenham Park. Collinson saw 

 it there in 1748 and claims that this tree was the 

 original of all the Weeping Willows in England. The 

 celebrated poet, Alexander Pope, who died in 1744, 

 had a tree in his garden at Twickenham and the 

 story is that he happened to be with Lady Suffolk 

 when she received a present from Spain, or, as others 

 claim, from Turkey, and observing that some of the 

 withy bound round it seemed to be alive took one 

 and planted it in his garden where it grew and after- 

 ward became a celebrated tree. It is said that the 

 Empress of Russia took cuttings from Pope's Willow 

 in 1789 for the gardens at Petrograd. Pope's tree 

 was destroyed either by storm or axe (there are two 

 stories) in 1801, and the wood was worked up by an 

 eminent jeweller into all sorts of trinkets and orna- 

 ments which had an extensive sale. 



On St. Helena Babylon Willows were planted by 

 General Beatson, governor of the island, about 1810. 

 One of these trees became a favourite with Napoleon 

 during his exile there, and, at his own request, a seat 

 was placed beneath it and there he often used to sit. 



All the Babylon Willows known in Europe are 



female and in all probability originated from a single 



tree introduced either by Wheler or Tournefort. 



It is a rather tender tree, not long-lived and large 



235 



