394 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



From Britain's painted sons I came. 



And basket is my barbarous name. 



Yet nov\'^ I am so modish grown. 



That Rome would claim me for her own*." 



The Romans used twigs of Willow to bind their vines : 

 this, and their being used for various sorts of wdcker- 

 ivork, gives occasion to Virgil to notice the twags it 

 affords, as he speaks of the leaves of the elm wdth which 

 cattle were fed : 



Viminibus salices foecundae, frondibus ulmi :" 



Georgic ii. 



" The willows abound with twigs, the elm with leaves." 



Martyn. 



The Spanish poet, Garcilasso, dedicates the Willow 

 to his mistress, which appears rather an equivocal com- 

 pliment : 



For Daphne's laurel Phoebus gave his voice. 

 The towering poplar charmed stern Hercules ; 



The myrtle sweet, w^hose gifted flowers rejoice 



Young hearts in love, did most v/arm Venus please ; 



The little green willow is my Fierid's choice. 

 She gathers it amidst a thousand trees : 



Thus laurel, poplar, and sweet myrtle now. 



Where'er it grows, shall to the willow bow." 



Wiffen's Garcilasso. 



Some of the smallest trees known are Willows; nay, 

 the smallest tree known, without any exception. Several 

 of the species do not exceed a foot in height ; but the 

 Herbaceous Willow, Salix herhacea^ is seldom higher 

 than three inches, sometimes not more than two; and 



* This is a curious instance of the antiquity of the word basket, 

 which may fairly be derived from hascauda. 



