304 THE WILLOW. 



carried us away captive required of us a song ; and they 

 that wasted us required of us mirth." 



From that time the Willow appears never again to have 

 been associated with feelings of gladness. Even among 

 heathen nations, for what reason we know not, it was a 

 tree of evil omen, and was employed to make the torches 

 carried at funerals. Our own poets have made the Willow 

 the symbol of despairing woe : Spenser makes it the garb 

 of the forlorn ; Shakspeare represents the doomed Queen 

 of Carthage standing 



" with a Willow in her hand 

 Upon the wild sea banks;" 



and Herrick says, 



" As beasts unto the altars go 



With garlands dressed, so I 

 Will, with my Willow wreath, also 

 Come forth and sweetly die." 



These poets, it should be remembered, wrote before the 

 Weeping or Babylonian Willow was known in Europe ; 

 but there can be no doubt that the dedication of the tree 

 to sorrow is to be traced to the pathetic passage in the 

 Psalms quoted above. 



Few persons are aware how very large a number of 

 species belong to the genus Willow. More than two 

 hundred are described by London, which are to be found 

 growing in British collections : of these, seventy are 

 enumerated by Sir W. J. Hooker as natives of Britain ; 

 Babington has reduced this number to fifty- seven ; and 

 Lindley, following the arrangement of Koch, has further 

 reduced it to thirty ; the last two authors considering as 

 mere varieties some which were considered to be distinct 

 species. 



If modern science has done so little towards reducing this 

 unruly tribe to order, we must not expect much accuracy 

 from the older naturalists. Accordingly, we find that 

 Pliny mentions only eight species ; and it cannot now be 



