Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 

 Salix and Siler. 



'genus haud unura . . . salici ' (Ge. ii. 83). 



' viminibus salices fecundae' (ib. 446). 



' dulce . . . lenta salix f eto pecori ' (Ec. iii. 83). 



' (apes) pascuntur . . . glaucas salices ' (Ge. iv. 182). 



' lenta salix . . . pallenti cedit olivae ' (Ec. v. 16). 



' vescas salicum frondes ' (Ge. iii. 175). 



' glauca canentia fronde salicta ' (Ge. ii. 13). 



'salignas . . . umbonum crates' (Ae. vii. 632). 



' molle siler' (Ge. ii. 12). 



The willow tribe are a large and confusing people, 

 and, since modern botanists are at issue concerning 

 them, we cannot expect Virgil to be exact in his 

 specific distinctions. He, of course, recognized that 

 there were several species (Ge. ii. 84). Arcangeli 

 counts twenty-seven in Italy beside varieties and 

 hybrids. Some of these, however, are not native, 

 the osier (Salix viminalis) being one. This is of 

 northern origin, was not known to the ancient 

 Romans, and even now is not much cultivated south 

 of Lombardy. Linnaeus was less happy than usual 

 in his specific name, for, while 'Juvenal may well be 

 right in calling the viminal 'dictum a vimine collem,' 

 this must have been another species, probably the 

 purple osier (S. purpurea), of which there may have 

 been a bed at the foot of the hill. This was prob- 

 ably the Amerine willow (Ge. i. 265), which supplied 

 withies for tying vines. It grows to some nine feet 

 high, and is common on some of our English streams. 

 Columella speaks of its red stems. 



Round Mantova willows, especially S. triandra, 



118 



