CHAP. cm.

•SALICA'CEiE. .S’A'LIX.

1507

basket willow.” Mr. Forbes received it from Messrs. Loddiges, under thename of S. Meyer tana; which species, he says, is readily distinguished fromS. lucida by its much larger leaves, and shorter obtuse catkins. There areplants in the Goldworth Arboretum, and in the salictum at Woburn.

Group v. Fragiles Borrer.

Trees, with, their Twigs mostly brittle at the Joints.

Stamens 2 to a flower. Ovary glabrous, elongated, seated upon a more orless obvious stalk. Flowers very loosely disposed in the catkin. Leaveslanceolate, serrated, glabrous, stipuled. The plants, trees of considerablesize. {Hook. Sr. FI., ed. 2., adapted.)

¥ 19. S. bauylo'nica L. The Babylonian, or weeping, Willow.

Identification. Lin. Sp. PI., 1443.; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. p. 671.; Smith in Rees’s Cyclo., No. 42.; Forbesin Sal. Wob., No. 22.; Koch Comm., p. 17., note; Pursh FI. Amer. Sept., 2. p. 614.

Synonym.es. S. propandens Sering. Sal. Hel., p. 73. (Koch ); S. orientalis, &c., Tourn .; S. arSbica,&c., C. Sauk. \ Saule pleureur, Parasol du grand Seigneur, Fr. ; Trauer Weide, Thranen Weide ,Ger.

The Sexes. The female is figured in Sal. Wob.; the male is not known, in a living state, in Britainunless it be S. b. Napolebno, as suggested in p. 1513.

Engravings. Kauw. It., 25. 183.; Sal. Wob., No. 22. j our fig. 22. in p. 1607.; and the plates of thistree in our last Volume.

Spec. Char., fyc. Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, finely serrated, glabrous;glaucous beneath. Catkins protruded at the same time as the leaves.Ovary ovate, sessile, glabrous. {Willd. Sp. PI., 4 p.671.) A native ofAsia, on the banks of the Euphrates, near Babylon, whence its name; andalso of China, and other parts of Asia; and of Egypt, and other parts ofthe north of Africa. It is said to have been first brought into England byMr. Vernon, a merchant at Aleppo, who sent it to his seat at TwickenhamPark, at about 1730, where it was seen growing by the celebrated PeterCollinson, in 1748. In the Hortus Kewensis, the date of its introduction isgiven as 1692; but no particulars are stated respecting it. Delille, ina note to his L’Homme des Champs, says that Tournefort first introducedit into Europe; and some authors, on the authority of the St. James’sChronicle for August, 1801, assert that Pope introduced it into England,and that his favourite tree at Twickenham was the first planted in thiscountry. The story is, that Pope, happening to be with Lady Suffolk,when that lady received a present from Spain, or, according to some, fromTurkey, observed that some of the pieces of withy bound round it appearedas though they would vegetate ; and, taking them up said, “ Perhaps thesemay produce something that we have not in England.” Whereupon, thestory adds, he planted one of them in his garden at Twickenham; whichbecame the weeping willow, afterwards so celebrated. This paper waspublished about the time that Pope’s willow was cut down, because thepossessor of his villa was annoyed by persons asking to see it. The mostprobable of these stories appears to be, that the tree was brought toEurope by Tournefort. It is now universally cultivated wherever it willstand the open air, not only in Europe, but in Asia, and in the civilisedparts of Africa : it is also a great favourite in North America. That thistree is a favourite one in China, and also very common in that country,appears from the frequent representations of it that are found on porcelain,tea-chests, &c. It is also pictured in a view of the village of Tonnan, drawnby John Nicohoff, July 3. 1655, on his way to Pekin, with the embassywhich the Dutch sent to the Emperor of China in that year. {Syl. Flor., 2.p. 265.) That the Chinese use it in their planted garden scenery, alongwith other ornamental trees, is evident, from the published views of the

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