= WILLOW sb. 1; cf. also 1 d, 6 d.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 646/33. Hec silex, wyllotre.
1495. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., XVII. cxliii. (W. de W.), T iiij/2. A wylowe tree … hath noo fruyte but oonly sede or floure.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxxxvi[i]. 2. As for oure harpes, we hanged them vp vpon the trees [fo. dlxxxij Vpon the trees, rede, Vpon the wyllye trees].
1548. Turner, Names Herbes (E.D.S.), 70. Particalis salix is the greate Wylowe tree whyche hath longe roddes … growynge in it.
1563. Googe, Eglogs, vi. (Arb.), 51. This mournynge looke, this Vesture sad, this wrethe of Wyllow tree.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 225. I offered him my company to a willow tree, either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or to binde him a rod, as being worthy to be whipt.
16[?]. R. Barnsley, in Wit Restor’d (1658), 35. That I may goe free From the sad branches of the willowe tree.
1610. R. Jones, Muses Gard., xii. (1901), 18. For once thou wert where thou wouldst be Though now thou wear’st the willow-tree.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 41. A wilfe tree that groweth in the hedge of the Bramble hill bottomes.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 3. Willow-trees are allowed to grow here and there.
