yet present a cheerful appearance in spring, from the quantity of green membranous capsules which quickly follow the clusters of brownish-purple flowers. These flowers have five stamens and two styles.

The name of the common Elm (Úlmus campéstris, Plate XIII., fig. 1) carries the mind back to many a pleasant wood, or cottage overshadowed by that beautiful tree. It has rough leaves, doubly serrated, and deeply cloven capsules. The Romans used to train young Elms into convenient shapes, and plant the vines to twine around them.

The Wych Elm (U. montána) has larger leaves, and the seed-vessels are less cloven. This tree is frequently met with

in Scotland.

There is a fine avenue of the common Elm in St. James's Park, London, and another in the Champs Elysées, in Paris. The tree is mature at the age of 150 years.

There are a Cork-barked Elm, which I found near Hereford, and a Smooth-leaved Elm, and a Cornish Elm; but these trees are rarely to be met with. Spenser offers his tribute to each in

turn:

"The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors
And poets sage, the firre that weepeth still;
The Willow, worn of forlorn paramours;
The Eugh, obedient to the bender's will;
The Myrrh sweet bleeding in the bitten wound,
The warlike Beech, and Ash for nothing ill;
The fruitful Olive, and the plantain round;
The carver Holme, the Maple, seldom inward sound,
The sayling Pine, the Cedar proud and tall,
The vine-prop Elm, the Poplar never dry;

The builder Oak, sole king of forests all,

The Aspine good for stayes the Cypress funerall."

The CATKIN order succeeds that of the Elm, and includes a great many British families. Of these the Willow is the first. The flowers are arranged in catkins, or, as the children call them, palms; the male catkins on one plant, and the female on another.

By the side of the Swale, near Richmond, a great variety of Willows are to be found. There are the Osier Willow (Sálix viminális), so useful in basketmaking; and the Rose Willow (S. hélix), of low growth, and with pinkish catkins and narrow leaves; and the Basket Willow (S. Forbiána), the female of the Bayton Willow, both occasionally used for weaving. Opposite to these grows the Two-coloured Willow (S. bícolor), the whitish lining of its broad dark leaves being considered as a second colour; whilst by the side of a well, in a field not a hundred yards further off, towers a handsome tree of the Silky-leaved Willow (S. Smithiána), its slender greyish catkins closely resembling the narrow young leaves.

"There ends of willow branches ride
Quivering on the flowing tide
By the deep river's side."

WOOLNER.

In the woods bordering this river the golden catkins of the Round-leaved Sallow (S. cáprea) make a gay object in the spring; and the Water Sallow (S. aquática, Plate XIII., fig. 2), with its downy leaves and bright catkins, strikes its roots into the stream.

The Dwarf Willow (S. répens) creeps upon the moors near Middleham, entangling its branches with those of the Heath and Crowberry; and the Long-leaved Triandrous Willow (S. triándra) adorns the riverbanks near Easby with its graceful branches, light shining foliage, and long, slender, primrosecoloured catkins.

The Rusty-branched Willow and the Rosemary-leaved Willow (S. Doniána and rosmarinifólia) were given to me by Mr. Ward. He, in conjunction with the Rev. John Leefe, made a first-rate collection of Willows, which he published for the instruction and pleasure of the botanical world.

I have the Varnished Willow (S. decipiens). It grows near "Cockshot gate," at Hawkhurst. Its bark is shiny, and its delicate leaves and graceful catkins resemble the Long-leaved Triandrous species.

WILLOW-POPLAR.

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A handsome tree of the Bedford Willow (S. Russelliána) grows by a small farm-house in the same neighbourhood, and the Crack Willow is found there too; it is distinguishable by the extreme brittleness of its branches.

The common White Willow (S. álba) grows to a good-sized tree, with greyish foliage. It is also found about Hawkhurst. It is rapid in its growth, and produces a great bulk of timber in a short time. When well ventilated and dry, the wood lasts well, and has been found in a sound state in buildings a century old.

The pretty little Eared Sallow (S. auríta), having ears by the side of its leafstalks, and roundish yellow catkins, grows frequently on plots of ground by the roadsides, there called "shores."

In some of the woods I have found the Prostrate Willow (S. prostráta) growing in an entangled mat.

The Willow family numbers sixty-four species, the smallest of all being only a couple of inches in height, but with all the accompaniments of a tree.

The Weeping Willow is a foreign species, a native of Babylon. It is the species alluded to in the Psalm: "As for our harps, we hanged them upon the trees that are therein." It was introduced into England by the poet Pope, who planted one of the twigs in which a quantity of Figs had been packed, and forthwith it took root.

The wood of the Willow family makes the best charcoal, and is therefore, used in gunpowder. An extract from the bark is called salicine, and rivals quinine as a tonic. Martin Tupper speaks of this: "Not long to charm away disease has the Willow yielded its bark." The wood is useful for handles for light implements, as hay-rakes, &c. Hoops for barrels are made by splitting Willow-rods in two equal parts, and crayons are made of the charcoal. The Willow is the emblem of deserted love. Spenser speaks of it as

"The Willow, worn of forlorn paramours."

The Poplar family numbers four British species.

The White Poplar (Pópulus álba) has leaves both lobed and toothed. In youth they are white on both sides, but the upper surface becomes full green. It is an elegant tree, with horizontal down-curving branches and large catkins, the crimson stamens of which are very conspicuous. Like the Willows, these trees have the male and female catkins on different plants. I believe this is the tree into which the weeping sisters of Phaeton were transformed. I will repeat the passage; but beware of shedding tears over the recital, lest you also should turn into Poplar trees :

"Four times revolving, the full moon returned,
So long the mother and the daughters mourned;
When now the eldest, Phaëthusa, strove

To rest her weary limbs, but could not move;
Lampetia would have helped her, but she found
Herself withheld, and rooted to the ground;

A third in wild affliction, as she grieves,

Would rend her hair, but fills her hands with leaves;
One sees her thighs transformed; another views

Her arms shot out, and branching into boughs."

Both this tree and the Black Poplar grow about Hawkhurst. The latter has triangular leaves, of a light green, and long lax catkins.

The Grey Poplar (P. canéscens) has roundish-waved leaves, and its branches are more upright than those of the White Poplar, which it otherwise resembles. I have no specimen of it.

The Aspen, or Trembling Poplar (P. trémula), grows near Frome in Somerset, and I have a specimen from thence. It is a lofty conical tree, and its leaves are always quivering. There is a beautiful, though of course fabulous, legend regarding this tree, which is well expressed in a poem signed "F. C. W.," published in "Chambers's Journal." The story relates that at our Saviour's death all the trees bowed their heads with one exception :

"But one tree was in the forest

That refused to bow;

BIRCH.

Then a sudden blast came o'er it,

And a whisper low

Made the leaves and branches quiver

Shook the guilty tree;

And the voice was, 'Tremble ever

To eternity:

Be a lesson from thee read

He that boweth not his head,

And obeyeth not his Maker, let him fear eternally!'

"So thou standest ever shaking,

Ever quivering with fear,

For the voice is still upon thee,

And the whisper near,

Like the guilty, conscience-haunted.
And the name for thee

Is 'the tree of many thoughts,'

Is 'the tree of many doubts ;'

And thy leaves are thoughts and doubtings, for thou
art the sinner's tree."

The BIRCH order comes next.

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Coleridge calls the common Birch "The Lady of the Woods." It bears its male and female flowers in different catkins, but on