THE WILLOW. 



241 



These poets, it should be remembered, wrote be- 

 fore the Weeping or Babylonian Willow was known 

 in Europe ; but there can be no doubt that the 

 dedication of the tree to sorrow is to be traced 

 to the pathetic passage in the Psalms, quoted 

 above. 



Few persons are aware how very large a num- 

 ber of species belong to the genus Willow. More 

 than two hundred are described by Loudon, which 

 are to be found growing in British collections ; of 

 these seventy are enumerated by Sir W. J. Hooker, 

 as natives of Britain ; Babington has reduced this 

 number to fifty-seven, and Lindley, following the 

 arrangement of Koch, has further reduced it to 

 thirty ; the two last authors considering as mere 

 varieties some which were considered to be dis- 

 tinct species. This simple fact is enough to shew 

 that the genus is a very difficult one even to bota- 

 nists. In a work of this kind an attempt to give 

 even a sketch of the principal species would be 

 quite out of place, and it will perhaps be con- 

 sidered presumptuous if I give an opinion as to 

 which of the three authors named above is most 

 worthy of being selected as a guide. Neverthe- 

 less, I may state that Sir W. J. Hooker'^s British 

 Flora" contains an account of the species as ar- 

 ranged by Borrer, who is, I believe, allowed to be 

 the first of living British botanists. Babington 

 confesses himself to be imperfectly acquainted 

 with many of those which Borrer considers spe- 

 cies, but which he makes varieties ; and Lindley, 

 in the first edition of his Synopsis," follows Sir 

 J. Smith, enumerating sixty-four species, but 

 in the second edition follows Koch, and reduces 

 the sixty-four to thirty. I am much afraid that 



II. R 



