the Israelites were commanded to dwell in booths made of "goodly trees, and rejoice before the Lord their God seven days," those selected for the occasion "were branches of palm trees and willows of the brook :" to which Nehemiah adds branches of olive, pine, and myrtle. These, being all tied together with gold and silver strings, were carried in procession by the people during the feast. This festival was further designed as a solemn acknowledgment of the mercy of God," who crowneth the year with his goodness," on the ingathering of the various fruits of the earth.

The Latin name Salix, signifying to spring up, well describes the rapid growth of the willow tribe. This characteristic, as well as its choice of situation, seems beautifully alluded to in Isaiah, xliv. 4.:-" They shall spring up as among grass, as willows by the watercourses." Not fewer than one hundred and forty-one different species of Salix have been enumerated by Sir James E. Smith. The one denominated Salix babylonica (our English weeping willow) is a native of the Levant, the coast of Persia, and other places in the East. The manner of its introduction into England is curious: the account is as follows:- Pope, the celebrated poet, having received a present of Turkey figs, observed a twig of the basket in which they were packed putting out a shoot.

This twig he planted in his garden; it soon became a fine tree, and from it all our weeping willows have descended. This particular tree was felled in 1801; a circumstance which one cannot help regretting. The Salix babylonica is generally planted by a still pool, to which it is a beautiful and appropriate ornament; and when in misty weather drops of water are seen distilling from the extremities of its branches, nothing can be more descriptive than the title it has obtained of weeping willow.

In ages past, where Babel's mighty waters
Roll'd darkly onward, sat a weeping band,
Poor remnant of proud Judah's sons and daughters,
Captives and exiles from their fatherland.

And while their tears they mingled with the billow, And while their foes the bitter taunt still flung, "Sing us the songs of Zion," on the willow

Their sileut harps with mournful meaning hung.

And e'er since then, that tree so sadly waving
By the still gliding stream, or plashy spring,
Whether suns brighten or dark storms are raving,
"Seems link'd to sorrow like a holy thing;"

And still it offers to the broken-hearted

The friendly covert of its drooping bough. O well it were, meek tree, when joy's departed, If man like thee could bend him to the blow!

THE MOUNTAIN ASH, OR ROWAN TREE.

PYRUS AUCUPARIA.

"The mountain ash

No eye can overlook, when mid a grove

Of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head,

Deck'd with autumnal berries, that outshine

Spring's richest blossoms; and ye may have mark'd

By a brook side or solitary tarn,

How she her station doth adorn: the pool

Glows at her feet, and all the gloomy rocks
Are brighten'd round her."

THE common appellation of this beautiful tree, the character of its foliage, and its choice of situation, have led to some confusion respecting its classification. Gerarde and Gilpin, for instance, have considered a variety of the true ash (Fraxinus); an error which has not escaped the animadversions of later botanists, who all now concur in comprehending it in the genus Pyrus.

It is a tree of slow growth; the wood is compact and tough, which made it, in the days of our warlike