TREES IN NATURE 89 



us, may, indeed, become intolerable to us, if it 

 have been the scene of some great sorrow. 

 And this sadness of the Jews, in a paradise of 

 beauty and fruitfulness, seems to be the reason 

 why we, even now, associate the willow with 

 sadness. 



But even to those who have not been in- 

 fluenced by the biblical tradition the willow has 

 been a symbol of sorrow, and funeral torches 

 were wont to be made from it. Do we find a 

 reason for this in that variety of the tree which 

 we know as the weeping-willow, and in which 

 we certainly do see a natural suggestion of 

 sadness? This variety, indeed, is known as 

 the Babylonian willow. I do not know which, 

 name or story, is cause, here, and which con- 

 sequence. The reader need only be reminded, 

 further, that Shakespeare sends poor Ophelia 

 to her death where 



There is a willow grows aslant a brook 



That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ; 



and that Desdemona says : — 



My mother had a maid called Barbara : 

 She was in love ; and he she loved proved mad, 

 And did forsake her ; she had a song of " Willow " ; 

 An old thing 'twas, but it expressed her fortune, 

 And she died singing it. 



