Domestic Notices : — England. 701 



the island, and successor to Sir Hudson Lowe, to John Townsend Farquar, 

 Esq., Governor of the Mauritius, who brought it to England." 



The landlord of the inn, Mr. Hare, informs us that the plant was sent over, 

 in a tub, to a friend of his at Twickenham, and presented to that friend for 

 the purpose of being planted in his garden ; but that he, being a professional 

 man, was afraid his doing so might be considered as indicative of his political 

 opinions; and this, in Twickenham, would have been ruinous, as that village 

 is noted for its attachment to the Bourbons; the present king of France 

 having resided there for many years when he was Duke of Orleans, and 

 been highly popular. 



There is a handsome small tree of Napoleon's willow in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden ; one at Kew ; several at Messrs. Loddiges'; some in the 

 Twickenham Botanic Garden ; one in the garden of Captain Stevens, 

 Beaumont Square, Mile End; one in the garden of Mr. Knight, at Canon- 

 bury Place, Islington, brought over in 1824; one in the garden of No. 2. 

 Lee Place, Lewisham, Kent; one in the garden of No. 1. Porchester Terrace; 

 one in the garden of Elm Gi-^e, Kensington Gravel Pits ; one, a very 

 flourishing and large tree, in the garden of Mrs. Lawrence, Drayton Green; 

 one at Clayton Priory, near Brighton ; several at Chatsworth ; and there are 

 various others in the neighbourhood of London, and in different parts of the 

 country. 



To show the uncertain result which often attends enquiries of this kind, 

 one gentleman refers us to a garden where we may see two plants, seed- 

 lings from the St. Helena tree, which, he says, show it to be a " silk-cotton 

 tree," and not a willow at all ; and another sent us a drawing of a leaf of 

 a plant said to be the St. Helena willow, which resembles Barringtom'a 

 speciosa. 



Mr. Castles, the curator of the Botanic Garden, Twickenham, is of 

 opinion that there are two kinds of weeping willow in this country; one of 

 which, he thinks, may possibly be the male, and the other the female. One 

 sort is of more vigorous growth than the other, and has the young shoots 

 slightly tinged with red ; and this, he says, is the same kind as that which 

 was sent home from St. Helena. There are a number of plants of this kind 

 in a brickfield close to the Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell ; one at the Marsh 

 Gate, Richmond, near the Poorhouse ; and one at the Ferry, near Ham 

 House. Mr. Castles's son, Mr. George Castles, says there are also some by 

 the canal side, near Brentford. The difference between the two sorts has 

 been pointed out to us by Mr. Castles : the one variety is evidently a more 

 slender and paler-coloured plant than the other, with an angular twist in the 

 shoots immediately above the axil of each leaf. Hence this, which is the 

 most common sort, is probably the (S'alix babylonica fce'mina ; and the Napo- 

 leon willow is either a variety of this, or the male plant. In the mean time, 

 till this is determined, which Mr. Castles hopes to do next spring, Napoleon's 

 willow may be designated jSalix babylonica var. Napole«?iG. 



Several views of Napoleon's tomb and the surrounding scenery have been 

 published ; some at St. Helena, and others in London. One of the most 

 recent, and apparently the best, is after a drawing by Mrs. Hill Dickson, 

 taken in 1833, and is published by D. Wollenholme, engraver, 22. Chad's 

 Row, Gray's Inn Road. Mr. James Samuel Graham, late of the St. Helena 

 artillery, who has been six years in the surveyor's department there, says 

 that, while in the island, he has drawn the tree and the surrounding scenery 

 many times for French visitors; and that he regrets to state, that out of all 

 the sketches he has seen published, not one is correct. 



After all this dry detail, the reader will, perhaps, not be sorry to peruse the 

 following extracts, relating to the subject of Napoleon's willow, which have 

 been sent us by our correspondent, Mr. J. H. Fennell, a zealous young 

 naturalist, who is preparing for publication a work on historical and literary 

 botany : — 



" Lieutenant Langdon, who touched at St. Helena on Nov. 22. 1825, says 



