WEEPING WILLOW 



WEEPING WILLOW 



Stilix babyl6nica. 



By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, 

 O Zion ! As for our harps we hanged them up upon the willow trees that are 

 therein. PSALM 137. 



The native land of the Weeping Willow is Asia. On the 

 banks of the Euphrates, near Babylon, it is abundant. It 

 is also found in China, in Egypt and elsewhere in Africa. 

 Some authorities say it was brought into England about 1730 ; 

 others give the date of its introduction as 1692. 



A pretty story is told of Pope in connection with this tree. 

 It seems that he was present when Lady Suffolk received a 

 package from Turkey and, observing that some of the withes 

 bound around it appeared alive, said taking them up, " Per- 

 haps these may produce something that we have not in Eng- 

 land." Whereupon, the story adds, he planted one of them 

 in his garden at Twickenham which became the Weeping 

 Willow, afterwards so celebrated. Years after, this willow 

 was cut down by the owner of the villa for the same reason 

 that Haskell cut down Shakespeare's mulberry tree, because 

 he was annoyed by persons asking to see it. 



That this willow is a favorite tree in China is clear from 

 the prominence given it in all Chinese pictures of landscape. 

 The famous landscape on the old Canton plates shows Weep- 

 ing Willows bordering the stream and surrounding the home 

 of the irate father. The Chinese also plant it in their ceme- 

 teries. It must, likewise, at one time in this country have 

 been considered a tree fitted to express elegant sorrow, for 

 funeral prints of a tombstone, shaded by a Weeping Willow 

 under which a mourner stands in the abandonment of grief, 

 are among the venerable treasures of many a New England 

 household. 



Perhaps, the most famous tree of the species is that grow- 

 ing upon the site of Napoleon's grave at St. Helena. Among 

 the trees that had been introduced into the island was a 

 Weeping Willow which attracted Napoleon's notice and under 



409 



