--No, Clara, the tree is called
'weeping' because it seems to 'assume the attitude of a person in tears,
who bends over and appears to droop.' The sprays of this tree are
particularly beautiful, and 'willowy' is often used for 'graceful,' as
meaning the same thing. Its language is 'sorrow,' and it is often seen
in burial-grounds and in mourning-pictures. 'We remember it in sacred
history, associating it with the rivers of Babylon, and with the tears
of the children of Israel, who sat down under the shade of this tree and
hung their harps upon its branches. It is distinguished by the graceful
beauty of its outlines, its light-green, delicate foliage, its sorrowing
attitude and its flowing drapery.'"
"Were those weeping willows that we saw to-day?" asked Clara.
"No," replied her brother, quickly; "they just stuck up straight and
didn't weep a bit."
"They are called _water_ willows," said Miss Harson, "because they are
never found in dry places. They are more common than the weeping willow.
The water willow has the same delicate foliage and the same habit, under
an April sky, of gleaming with a drapery of golden verdure among the
still-naked trees of the forest or orchard. 'When Spring has closed her
delicate flowers,' says a bright writer, 'and the multitudes that crowd
around the footsteps of May have yielded their places to the brighter
host of June, the willow scatters the golden aments that adorned it,
and appears in the deeper garniture of its own green foliage.
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