The epithet babylonica in this Chinese species' scientific name (S. babylonica), as well as the related common names "Babylon willow" or "Babylon weeping willow", derive from a misunderstanding by Linnaeus that this willow was the tree described in the Bible in the opening of Psalm 137 (here in Latin and English translations):
From the Clementine Vulgate (Latin, 1592): Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus, cum recordaremur Sion.
In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra.... Here, "salicibus" is the dative plural of the Latin noun salix, the willows, used by Linnaeus as the name for the willow genus Salix.
From the King James Version (English, 1611): By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
From the Revised Standard Version (English, 1952): By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion
On the willows there we hung up our lyres....
Despite these Biblical references to "willows", whether in Latin or English, the trees growing in Babylon along the Euphrates River in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and named gharab in early Hebrew, are not willows (Salix) in either the modern or the classical sense, but the Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica), with willow-like leaves on long, drooping shoots, in the related genus Populus. Both Populus and Salix are in the plant family Salicaceae, the willow family.
These Babylonian trees are correctly called poplars, not willows, in the New International Version of the Bible (English, 1978):
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion
Origin: China, not Babylon
ResponderEliminarThe epithet babylonica in this Chinese species' scientific name (S. babylonica), as well as the related common names "Babylon willow" or "Babylon weeping willow", derive from a misunderstanding by Linnaeus that this willow was the tree described in the Bible in the opening of Psalm 137 (here in Latin and English translations):
From the Clementine Vulgate (Latin, 1592):
Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus, cum recordaremur Sion.
In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra....
Here, "salicibus" is the dative plural of the Latin noun salix, the willows, used by Linnaeus as the name for the willow genus Salix.
From the King James Version (English, 1611):
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
From the Revised Standard Version (English, 1952):
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion
On the willows there we hung up our lyres....
Despite these Biblical references to "willows", whether in Latin or English, the trees growing in Babylon along the Euphrates River in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and named gharab in early Hebrew, are not willows (Salix) in either the modern or the classical sense, but the Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica), with willow-like leaves on long, drooping shoots, in the related genus Populus. Both Populus and Salix are in the plant family Salicaceae, the willow family.
These Babylonian trees are correctly called poplars, not willows, in the New International Version of the Bible (English, 1978):
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion
There on the poplars we hung our harps.