THE WAYFARING-TREE 93 



wood ; " and again, " Whitty-tree, or Wayfaring-tree, is 

 rare in this country." Whiten-tree and Whiten-beam 

 seem to be widely known names in the southern and 

 midland counties ; and "in Devonshire, where, as in 

 Hampshire, ploughboys prefer this shrub for their 

 switches, there is a proverb " as tough as a Whitney 

 stick." The name Mealy-tree, the precise equivalent 

 of that applied in Germany to the White Beam, is also 

 probably an early one as applicable to this species, for 

 in- Skinner's seventeenth-century etymological diction- 

 ary we have it with the admirably explicit explana- 

 tion, "sic dictum quia ejus folia, instar farinse, 

 Candida, moUia, et tomentosa sunt " (so called because 

 its leaves are white, soft, and downy, like meal). 



William Howitt, with reference to the name under 

 which we have preferred to speak of this tree, as being 

 more distinctive, in his " Book of the Seasons," thus 

 apostrophises it : — 



" Wayfaring-tree ! What ancient claim 

 Hast thou to that right pleasant name ? 

 Was it that some faint pilgrim came 

 Unhopedly to thee, 

 In'.the brown desert's weary way, 

 'Mid toil and thirst's consuming sway, 

 And there, as 'neath thy shade he lay, 

 Blest the wayfaring-tree ? 



" Or is it that tliou lov'st to show 

 Thy coronets of fragrant snow. 

 Like life's spontaneous joys that flow 

 In paths by thousands beat ? 

 Whate'er it be, I love it well ; 

 A name, methinks, that surely fell 

 From poet, in some evening dell. 

 Wandering with fancies sweet." 



