ENGLISH PLANT NAMES. 
3G7 
(3) Catkins of Corylus Avellana, L. — Pulman, 
(4) Pmus Picea, L. — Irel. (Antrim, Down). 
The substitution of Willow and Yew for the true Palm in the cere- 
monies of Palm Sunday has led to a similar extension of the name : 
both, doubtless, date from very early times. Hampson (Medii ^vi 
Kalendarium, ii. 30) quotes an old sermon for Palm Sunday from the 
Cotton MS. Claud. A. 11. fo. 12, in which occurs a passage, saying 
that, as ‘ we have non olyfe that bereth grene leves we taken in stede 
of hit hew [yew] and palmes wyth, and beroth abowte in procession, 
and so this day we callyn Palme Sonnenday.’ Barnaby Googe 
(Popish Kingdome, bk. iii.) tells how the ‘Papists Willow braunches 
hallow that they Palmes do use to call.’ Parkinson (Theatr. p. 1431) 
speaks of ‘ divers gathering them to decke up their houses on Palme 
Sunday ; ’ and Coles (A. in E.) adds, ‘ therefore the said flowers are 
called Palme.’ It is the Willow which is sold as ‘ Palm ’ in Covent 
Garden Market ; while in Kent and other counties, ‘ going a Palming ’ 
is a popular custom on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. It would 
appear that in Turner’s day, Willow only was used in England, and in 
his Libellus (1538) he has a characteristic protest against the ‘men- 
dacity ’ of the Catholic clergy. ‘ Palma arborem in anglia,’ he says, 
‘ nunq me vidisse memini. In die tamen ramis palmaru (ut illi 
loquutur) ssepius sacerdote dicente audivi, Benedic etia & hos palmaru 
ramos, quu preter salignas frondes nihil omnino videre ego, quid alii 
viderint nescio. Si nobis palmarum frondes non suppeterent ; pres- 
taret me judice mutare lectionem & discere, Benedic hos salicu ramos, 
q falso & mendaciter salicum frondes palmarum frondes vocare.’ As, 
however, the Eoman Eitual distinctly refers to ‘ hos olivee cceteroriim- 
que arhorum ramos,’ as well as to the ‘ramos palmse,’ it would seem 
that the zealous reformer strained a point in his anxiety to criminate 
the clergy of the period. According to Sir Walter Scott’s novel, 
‘Castle Dangerous,’ Willow and Yew were carried, even in Scotland, 
upon Palm Sunday; and Broekett suys that in the North of England 
the flowers of Willow are gathered early in the morning of that day, 
and with them ‘ small pieces of wood formed into crosses, called 
Palm crosses,’ are decorated, which are then ‘ stuck up or suspended 
in their houses.’ According to Pallas, as quoted by Martyn, it is a 
species of Willow (Salix vitellina) that is used as a substitute for Palm 
in the Greek Church of Eussia. Among ourselves S. cinerea and 
S. Cajprea are the species chiefly used ; and of these waggon-loads from 
the marshy banks of the lower Thames region are sent to London 
every year. In the accounts of St. Martin Outwich, London, for 
1525, there are entries of payments for ‘yow,’ ‘palme,’ and ‘box 
floures ’ on Palm Sunday, which makes it probable that yew and box 
were used then as well as willow, as indeed they are in Catholic 
churches in London and the neighbourhood, at the present day ; 
willow being but seldom used. Yew is the most frequently em- 
ployed ; and in Ireland yew-trees are almost universally called palms, 
even by those who know the proper name for them (N. & Q. 3rd Ser. 
vii. 168). We have not heard the Box (Buxiis sempervirens) called 
Palm ; Lyte, however, refers to it as the Palm-tree, and says it is so 
called ‘ bycause upon Palm Sunday they carie it in their churches 
and sticke it rouncle aboute their houses.’ It now-a-days often figures 
prominently among the branches blessed in Catholic churches. In 
Domesday Book (Shropshire, vol. i. 252), we find mention of a tenure 
c C 2 
