Part 23

For the generic characters, see p. 243.

The Common Wild Service-tree is a native of various parts of Europe, from Germany to the Mediterranean, and of the south of Russia, and Western Asia. It is found in woods and hedges in the middle and south of England, but not in Scotland or Ireland. It generally grows in strong clayey soils.

This tree grows to the height of forty or fifty feet, spreading at the top into many branches, and forming a large head. The branches are well clad with leaves, and are covered when young with a purplish bark, with white spots. The leaves are on pretty long foot-stalks, and are nearly four inches in length and three in breadth in the middle, simple, somewhat cordate, serrate, seven-lobed, bright green on the upper side, and woolly underneath. The flowers are white, in large, terminal, downy panicles; they appear in May, and are succeeded by roundish compressed fruit, similar in appearance to large haws, and ripen late in autumn, when they are brown. If kept till they are soft, in the same way as medlars, they have an agreeable acid flavour.

The Service-tree gives the husbandman an early presage of the approaching spring, by putting forth its adorned buds; and it ventures to peep out even in the severest seasons. As an ornamental tree, its large green buds strongly recommend it in the winter and spring; as its fine large-lobed leaves do in summer, and its large and numerous clusters of rich brown fruit do in autumn.

The best mode of propagating the Service-tree is by suckers. Of these it puts forth a goodly number: and it may also be budded with great improvement. It prospers best in good stiff ground, of a nature rather cold than hot; for where the soil is too dry, it will not yield well. This tree may either be grafted on itself, or on the white thorn and quince. To this may be added the Mespilus, or medlar, being a very hard wood, and of which very beautiful walking-sticks are sometimes made. The timber of the Service-tree is useful for the joiner, and it has occasionally been used for wainscoting rooms. It is also used for bows, pulleys, screws, mill and other spindles; for goads to drive oxen with; for pistol and gun-stocks; and for most of the purposes for which the wild pear-tree is serviceable. It is valued by the turner in the manufacture of various curiosities, having a very delicate grain, which makes a showy appearance; and it is very durable. When rubbed over with well-boiled linseed oil, it is an admirable imitation of ebony, or almost any Indian wood.

One of the finest specimens of the Service-tree in England is said to be at Arley Hall, near Bewdley. This tree is fifty-four feet six inches high; the diameter of the trunk, at a foot from the ground, is three feet six inches; and that of the head is fifty-eight feet eight inches.

THE WILLOW-TREE.

Generic characters. Catkins oblong, imbricated all round, with oblong scales. Perianth none. Stamens 1-5. Fruit a 1-celled follicle with 1-2 glands at its base.

The willow tribes that ever weep, Hang drooping o'er the glassy-bosom'd wave.

Bidlake.

The Willows are chiefly natives of the colder parts of the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. More than two hundred species of this genus have been described by botanists, of which sixty-six are considered indigenous in this country. These are subdivided into scientific and economic groups. The economic groups are:--for growing as timber-trees, for coppice-wood, for hoops, for basket-rods, for hedges, and for ornamental trees or shrubs.

The Babylonian or Weeping Willow, S. Babylonica, the portrait of which heads this article, is the most picturesque and beautiful tree of this genus. It is a native of Asia, on the banks of the Euphrates, near Babylon, whence its name; and also of China, and other parts of Asia; and of Egypt, and other parts of the north of Africa. It is said to have been introduced into England by the poet Pope, who planted it in his garden at Twickenham, where it was known until about 1800 as "Pope's Willow;" but it was more probably brought to Europe by the botanist Tournefort, before 1700. Of the Weeping Willow, Miller says, "It grows to a considerable size. I have one in my view whilst I am writing, which is four and a half feet in circumference at three feet above the ground, and is at least thirty feet in height; the age is thirty-four years. This tree is remarkable, and generally esteemed for its long slender pendulous branches, which give it a peculiar character, and render it a beautiful object on the margin of streams or pools. The leaves are minutely and sharply serrate, smooth on both sides, glaucous underneath, with the midrib whitish; on short petioles. Stipules, when present, roundish or semilunar, and very small; but more frequently wanting, and then in their stead a glandular dot on each side. Catkins axillary, small, oblong; in the barren the filaments longer than the scale, with two ovate erect glands fastened to the base; the fertile on two-leafed peduncles, scarcely longer than half an inch."

The light airy spray of the Weeping Willow is pendent. The shape of its leaf is conformable to the pensile character of the tree; and its spray, which is lighter than that of the poplar, is more easily put into motion by a breath of air. The Weeping Willow, however, is not adapted to sublime subjects; but the associations which are awakened in conjunction with it, by that very beautiful psalm, "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Sion! as for our harps, we hanged them up upon the Willows,"--are of themselves sufficient to impart to it an interest in every human breast touched by the sublime strains of the Psalmist.

On the Willow thy harp is suspended, O Salem! its sound shall be free; And the hour when thy glories were ended, But left me that token of thee. And ne'er shall its soft notes be blended, With the voice of the spoiler by me.

Byron.

Gilpin says we do not employ the Willow to screen the broken buttresses and Gothic windows of an abbey, nor to overshadow the battlements of a ruined castle. These offices it resigns to the oak, whose dignity can support them. The Weeping Willow seeks a humbler scene--some romantic foot-path bridge, which it half conceals, or some glassy pool, over which it hangs its streaming foliage,

--and dips Its pendent boughs, stooping, as if to drink.

In these situations it appears in character, and to advantage.

No poet ever mentions the Weeping Willow but in connection with sad and melancholy thoughts. Burns, in his "Braes of Yarrow," thus sings:

Take off, take off these bridal weeds, And crown my careful head with Willow.

Prior alludes to the afflicted daughters of Israel:

Afflicted Israel shall sit weeping down, Their harps upon the neighbouring Willows hung.

And Dr. Booker refers to the same pathetic scene:

Silent their harps (each cord unstrung) On pendent Willow branches hung.

The Willow is generally found growing on the borders of small streams or rivers. The Sacred writers almost constantly refer to this natural habit. Thus in Job we read:

The shady trees cover him with their shadows; the Willows of the brook compass him about (xl. 22).

And again, Isaiah, in two places, speaks of its connection with the brook:

That which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the Willows (xv. 7).