The Willow Tree.

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by the poet Pope in his garden at Twickenham, and grew and thrived there so well that it became a great favourite in every garden where its roots could get sufficient water, for it should always be near a stream or a pond of water. Don't you recollect hearing Desdemona's song, when Auntie was reading a piece from Shakespeare the other day, and you asked who sang such a sad ditty?

'The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, Sing all a green willow ;

Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,

Sing willow, willow, willow.

The fresh streams ran by her and murmured her moans,
Her salt tears ran from her and softened the stones;

Sing willow, willow, willow,

Sing all a green willow must be my garland.'

HENRY.-Our bit of ash has no leaves on it yet, and I'm glad of it, for gardener told us that

but

'If the ash leafs before the oak,

Then woe old England for a soak ;'

'If the oak's before the ash,

There will be but little splash.'

So, as I like fine dry weather, I am glad there are no leaves yet on the ash.

GRANNY.—I don't believe much in that, Harry; but it is very interesting to know all about the common trees of our parks and meadows and woods, and to learn all the curious things people have said and thought about them in olden times. I don't think any description I could give you of different trees would help you much to know them when you see them; it would be almost as difficult to describe people, and expect you to recognise them. The best way is to get some one who does know them well to take walks with you, and introduce them to you, a few at a time, and you must try to remember their form and appearance. The ash has been called the 'Venus of the woods;' and it is indeed a graceful tree, and contrasts well with the heavier and more massive appearance of the old oak tree, as it comes slowly and deliberately out with its leaves, being in no hurry to expose them to the east winds of our early spring-time.

The ash tree was at one time held in reverence for the cure of disease. Children who were deformed or weakly used to be passed through an ash tree three times before the sun had risen. The tree was split open sufficiently to let the body of the child be pushed through without its clothes, and after this was done three times the tree was carefully bound up; and as the tree healed and grew together again, it was supposed that the child recovered, but if the tree did not unite, the operation was unsuccessful. The elm is one of the first trees of spring, and when allowed to grow naturally, and not cut about and its branches lopped off, as is so common, is really a beautiful tree. The beautiful, graceful birch, too, is easily distinguished by its feathery branches. And then the beech tree, which is known by its light-green silky leaves when they are out, and by the very graceful sweep of its branches even before they appear. But we must not go on chatting about all the forest trees, which I know so well, and love like old familiar

friends, who come to greet me with their fresh bright coats year after year.

ALICE.-Well, then, Granny, when the weather is warmer, and the east winds go, you will take us into the woods and show us these friends of yours, and we will try and recollect them when we see them in other places.

HENRY. I recollect last summer we used to fill our baskets with things we used to call pines, which we found under the fir trees in the woods. What were they?

GRANNY.-Those were the cones of the Scotch fir, which grow very large and hard; and as they contain some resin, they are good for lighting fires. The fir or pine tree is, I think, the most useful tree next to the oak; but it does not grow well everywhere, and before planting trees, I think people should think whether the soil will suit them. I know one foolish old man who planted a whole row of Scotch firs in a heavy clay soil, because he got them cheap, and then wondered why they

did not grow, and was surprised that his neighbour, who planted at the same time some elms and chestnut trees, got a nice shade for his house long before the Scotch firs had made a single branch. But where the Scotch fir grows well, in sandy and dry situations, it is a valuable tree. Its sap yields turpentine and resin, also tar and pitch; and the wood is called deal when made into boards, and is used for floors and other things. Then it will grow on rocky places where no other tree could find food, and it does not die and wither up with the cold blasts of the north, but will also grow in the warmer south. Tennyson

writes of the

'Dark tall pines that plumed the craggy ledge,
High over the blue gorge.'

But now, dears, run away. We have talked enough for to-day, and to-morrow see if you cannot find at least a few spring flowers for our lesson.