2970 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
erect, but inclining to one side, with a darkish bark furrowed, 
on old trees, with pretty deep furrows. 'The branches are very 
spreading, of a whitish green, with long dark cracks. The 
smaller branches are of a greenish yellow, and smooth. The 
terminal shoots are long, slender, dependent, of a bright yellow 
color. The leaves are long, lanceolate, finely serrate, tapering 
at both extremities, of a polished green above when mature, 
whitish-glaucous beneath, more or less covered with silky hairs 
when young. The footstalk is short, often with a dark gland 
at the base of the leaf on each side. 
Sp. 15. Tue Weerine Wittow. S. Babylonica. L. Introduced. 
The tree is figured in Loudon, VII, Plate 207. 
Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrated, glabious, glaucous beneath ; 
stipules minute, roundish ; aments opening with the leaves ; ovaries ovate, 
sessile, glabrous; branches pendulous.—Pursh. I], 614; Waulld. IV, 671; 
Loudon, II, 1507. 
A native of the banks of the Euphrates, near Babylon, of 
China, and of the north of Africa. It is supposed to have been 
introduced into Europe by the celebrated botanist, 'Tournefort, 
the great predecessor of Linneeus. 'Tournefort returned from 
his voyage to the Levant in 1702, at which time this willow 
must have been introduced. It is now extensively cultivated, 
as an ornamental tree, in those parts of Kurope, as well as Asia, 
the north of Africa, and America, whose climate is favorable to 
its growth. It is almost every where considered a funereal tree, 
and has, in many places, taken the place of the cypress, in 
church-yards. ‘To no other willow does the descriptive line of 
the poet of nature so well apply :— 
“and gracefully 
The willow, a perpetual mourner, drooped.’’ 
It is found in most parts of New England, although the cli- 
mate is rather too cold for it, as is shown by the fact that the 
branches often fail of ripening their wood, and are consequently 
killed by the succeeding winter. 
A singular variety of this willow called the ring-leaved wil- 
low, with curled or twisted leaves, is cultivated as a curiosity. 
