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AMENTIFERZ. 209 
to the far-famed willow, and says, “ The magnitude of this tree is surprising, especially 
when the general character of its congeners is considered. The trunk at six feet above 
the ground measures twenty-one feet in girth, and extends twenty feet in height of 
that vast size before dividing into enormous ramifications. The whole trunk, thus 
comprising about 130 feet of solid timber, continues perfectly sound, and the very ex- 
tensive head shows unimpaired vigour. A younger plant (though a full- aed tree) 
in the adjoining meadow promises to sustain the reputation of its sire.” In the 
November of the same year of Dr. Withering’s visit, 1810, many of the branches were 
Swept away by a violent storm, and nearly half of what remained of the tree fell to 
the ground in August, 1815, leaving little more than its stupendous trunk and a few 
side boughs. In 1825 a fire was made by some boys in the hollow of the trunk, 
which would probably have consumed it, had not Mr. Stringer, whose garden nearly 
adjoins it, seen the flames, and sent off to the town for the fire-engines. In April, 
1829, the tree was blown down in a violent storm, which took place on the 29th of the 
month, about three o'clock in the afternoon. After this event, the proprietor of the 
ground on which the tree stood, regretting that there was no young tree to plant in 
its stead, recollected that a branch had been blown off the tree before, and used for 
pea-sticks in his garden. Examining them, he found that one had taken root, and he 
had it at once removed, and planted on the site of the old tree in fresh soil, giving a 
dinner on the occasion to his friends and the admirers of Johnson. The timber of 
S. Russelliana or S. viridis, as it is called in our present work, is the most valuable of 
any of the willow tribe. 
The Babylonian or weeping willow belongs to this group of willows, and is pecu- 
liarly the poet’s willow. It is asserted that the poet Pope first introduced it into 
England, and planted it in his garden at Twickenham. The story is, that Pope, 
happening to be with Lady Suffolk when she received a present from Spain, or, 
according to some, from Turkey, observing that some of the pieces bound round it 
appeared as though they would vegetate, took them up, saying, “‘ Perhaps these may 
produce something we have not in England.” Whereupon he planted one which 
became the celebrated weeping willow of the Twickenham garden. Other authors 
say that the tree was brought to Europe by Tournefort. It is now universally culti- 
vated, and almost naturalised in England. The weeping willow is the emblem of 
grief, and is employed in many countries as such in cemeteries and near mausoleunis, 
frequently taking the place of the cypress with this object. It conveys rather the 
idea of grief with hope for the future, than the thick heavy foliage of the cypress, 
which inspires only gloomy thought. The willow which grew over the grave of 
Napoleon Buonaparte in St. Helena was one of this species, and many hundred cuttings 
from this identical tree are now distributed throughout Europe. 
This Eastern willow is doubtless the one to which frequent reference is made in the 
sacred writings. The Psalmist writes, “ By the waters of Babylon we sat down and 
wept when we remembered thee, O Sion! As for our harps, we hanged them upon 
the willow trees that are therein.” The legendary origin of the weeping willow. 
according to the Arabian story, is ax follows :—After David had married Bathsheba, he 
_ was one day playing on his harp in his private chamber, when two strangers entered 
unseen by any one. They were angels, who made him convict himself of his crime. 
and convinced him of his great guilt. For forty days and nights he lay mourning 
and weeping on the ground, and shedding bitter tears of repentance. As many tears 
of repentance as the whole human race have shed, and will shed, on account of their 
sins, from the time of David to the Judgment Day, so many did David weep in those 
forty days, all the while moaning forth psalms of penitence. But the tears from his 
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