March 24—He would indeed be a clever diarist who could register some new thought on nature every day—year in, year out—for many years without repeating himself... and I often wonder if it is worth while for me to record my daily thoughts on matters which repeat themselves with the regularity of a pendulum clock! There are but twelve hours displayed on the face of a clock, and but twelve months in the year: and so swiftly do the wheels of time turn round, 1 can almost hear the chimes as the months go by. Take this latter part of March which is the time of the budding.of the Willow: the sheaves of the leaves are now bursting away and dropping to the ground: some trees are sterile, others fertile, and in the case of the latter we shall soon see the tiny seeds being distributed on parachutes of silky down... all of which I referred to in my diary some four or more years ago. But I am still interested, for I could never understand the mix-up which has for generations existed between the Palm and the Willow when it comes to the celebration of Palm Sunday on the 10th. of April... soon to come. It seems that "in Leviticus Eh. XII v. 40) we were told to celebrate the entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem by taking "branches of Palm trees... and Willows of the brook... (to rejoice before the Lord)." Ever since then the Palm and the Willow have been mixed up, partly because of this biblical exhortation and partly because there is a similarity between the flowers (or catkins) of the two plants. Here is an extract from an old book to show how this has been Observed: "It is still customary with men and boys to go a-palming in London early on Palm Sunday morning: tnat is by gathering branches of the Willow, with their shining velvet-looking buds... nine out of ten of the purchasers, being Londoners, buy it in imitation of others and do not even know the tree which produces if." I wonder how many people in Shanghai are in the same boat?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.