302 



THE WILLOW. 



Salix. 



Natural Order — Amextace^. 



C?ass— DicECiA. Oz-c/er— Tkiandria. 



By the common consent of mankind trees have in all 

 ages been selected as affording the most appropriate 

 emblems of the passions by which both states and indi- 

 viduals have been swayed, as Avell as to indicate the 

 various changes in condition to which, from time to time, 

 they have been subjected. I need only mention the Palm, 

 the Olive, the Bay, the Cypress, and I recall at once the 

 ideas of rejoicing, peace, victory, and mourning. The 

 Willow is remarkable among these for having been in 

 different ages emblematic of two directly opposite feel- 

 ings ; at one time being associated with the Palm, at 

 another with the Cypress. The earliest mention of the 

 Willow which occurs in any composition is to be found 

 in the Pentateuch,^ where the Israelites were directed at 

 the institution of the feast of Tabernacles to " take the 

 boughs of goodly trees, branches of Palm-trees, and the 

 boughs of thick trees, and Willows of the brook, and to 

 rejoice before the Lord their God seven days." 



To wanderers in a dry and barren wilderness the bare 

 mention of a tree bearing the name of the " WilloAv of 

 the brook" must have come associated with the most 

 pleasurable feelings ; and even when the Israelites were 

 settled in a land which was " the joy of all lands," this 

 tree still continued to be emblematical of joyful prosperity. 

 The prophet Isaiah, foretelling the glorious restoration 

 of Israel, says, " They shall spring up as among the grass, 

 as WiUows by the water-courses." ^ But while the Jews 



1 Lev. xxiii. 40. - Isaiah xliv. 4. 



