e Palm tree of the Forest of Arden is the

"Satin-shining Palm
On Sallows in the windy gleams of March"--

_Idylls of the King_--Vivien.

that is, the Early Willow (_Salix caprea_) and I believe it is so called
all over England, as it is in Northern Germany, and probably in other
northern countries. There is little doubt that the name arose from the
custom of using the Willow branches with the pretty golden catkins on
Palm Sunday as a substitute for Palm branches.

"In Rome upon Palm Sunday they bear true Palms,
The Cardinals bow reverently and sing old Psalms;
Elsewhere those Psalms are sung 'mid Olive branches,
The Holly branch supplies the place among the avalanches;
More northern climes must be content with the sad Willow."

GOETHE (quoted by Seeman).

But besides Willow branches, Yew branches are sometimes used for the
same purpose, and so we find Yews called Palms. Evelyn says they were so
called in Kent; they are still so called in Ireland, and in the
churchwarden's accounts of Woodbury, Devonshire, is the following entry:
"Memorandum, 1775. That a Yew or Palm tree was planted in the
churchyard, ye south side of the church, in the same place where one was
blown down by the wind a few days ago, this 25th of November."[195:1]

How Willow or Yew branches could ever have been substituted for such a
very different branch as a Palm it is hard to say, but in lack of a
better explanation, I think it not unlikely that it might have arisen
from the direction for the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus xxiii. 40:
"Ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, the
branches of Palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and Willows of
the brook." But from whatever cause the name and the custom was derived,
the Willow was so named in very early times, and in Shakespeare's time
the name was very common. Here is one instance among many--

"Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
The Palms and May make country houses gay,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay--
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pee-we, to-witta-woo."

T. NASH. 1567-1601.

FOOTNOTES:

[193:1] I do not include among "Palms" the passage in _Hamlet_, act i,
sc. 1: "In the most high and palmy state of Rome," because I bow to
Archdeacon Nares' judgment