THE WEEPING WILLOW 151 



This beautiful tree is said to have been introduced 

 into Europe by Tournefort, and was almost certainly 

 first brought to England, in 1748, by Mr. Vernon, a 

 Turkey merchant of Aleppo, who planted a tree, from 

 the Euphrates, at his seat at Twickenham Park. Its 

 alleged introduction by the poet Pope is a poetical 

 fiction, of which there are several versions. The poet, 

 it is said, was with his friend Lady Suffolk, when she 

 received a basket of figs from Turkey, or Spain, and 

 noticing that some of the twigs of the basket seemed 

 to have life in them, he exclaimed : " Perhaps these 

 may produce something that we have not in 

 England," and accordingly planted them in his 

 garden. The poet's tree, the outcome, it is alleged, 

 of this incident, was afterwards cut down because 

 the owner of Pope's villa was bothered by too many 

 hero-worshipping visitors. 



As the greenish yellow flowers that appear in May 

 never produce seed in this species, and as almost 

 all Willows can be readily propagated by slips, this 

 is the way in which the tree is always multiplied, 

 and in this way it was introduced by Governor 

 Beatson into the island of St. Helena, where there 

 are no native Willows. The form, however, planted 

 over the tomb of Napoleon, from which many 

 cuttings have now grown into large trees in England, 

 seems to be a distinct variety, having reddish 

 shoots and no stipules to the leaves. 



Though its wood might be used, like that of other 

 Willows, for crayon charcoal or for paper pulp, and 

 its bark possesses some of the medicinal and tan- 

 ning properties of the group, the Weeping Willow is 



