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WILLOW. — SALIX. 



Natural order, Amentacece. A genus of the 

 Dicecia Diandria class. 



" In which the willows dip 



Their pendent boughs, stooping as if to drink." 



Cowper. 



" Thus o'er our streams do eastern willows lean 

 In pensive guise; whose grief-inspiring shade, 

 Love has to melancholy sacred made." Delille. 



" To the brook and the willow that heard him complain, 

 Ah willow ! willow ! 

 Poor Colin went weeping and told them his pain." 



Howe. 



The weeping willow, Salix Babylonica, so 

 much admired when waving its long and slen- 

 der pendulous branches over our lakes and 

 rivers, is a native of eastern countries, and 

 grew anciently by the waters of Babylon, as 

 its trivial name indicates. It was on this 

 tree that the unhappy Israelites hung their 

 harps, and bemoaned their beloved Jerusa- 

 lem, during their captivity, and which is so 



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