Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/624

Rh 588 W I L W I L published at London in 1835 (3 vols. ; Philadelphia, 1836, 2 vols.; and first complete edition, New York, 1841). Their vivid and rapid sketches of scenes and modes of life in the Old World at once gained them a wide popularity ; but he was censured by some critics for indiscretion in reporting conversations in private gatherings. Notwithstanding, however, the small affectations and fopperies which were his besetting weaknesses as a man as well as an author, the grace, ease, and artistic finish of his style won general recognition. His Slingsby Papers, containing descriptions of American life and adventure, republished in 1836 under the title Inklings of Adventure, were as successful in England as were his Pendttings by the Way in America. He also published while in England Melaine and Other Poems (London, 1835 ; New York, 1837), which was introduced by a preface by Barry Cornwall. After his marriage to Mary Stace, daughter of General Stace of Woolwich, he returned to America, and settled at a small estate on Oswego Creek, just above its junction with the Susquehanna. Here he lived off and on from 1837 to 1842 and wrote Letters from Under a Bridge (1840), the most charming of all his works. During a short visit to England in 1839-40 he published Two Ways of Dying for a Husband. Returning to New York, he established, along with George P. Morris, a news paper entitled the Evening Mirror. On the death of his wife in 1845 he again visited England. Returning to America in the spring of 1846, he again married, and established the National Press, afterwards named the Home Journal. In 1845 he published Dashes at Life, in 1846 a collected edition of his Prose and Poetical Works, in 1849 Rural Letters, and in 1850 Life Here and There. In the last-mentioned year he settled at Idlewild, and on account of failing health spent the remainder of his life chiefly in retirement. Among his later works were Hurrygraphs, 1851; Outdoors at Idleivild, 1854; Ragbag, 1855; Pearl Fane, 1856 ; and the Convalescent, 1859. He died 20th July 1867, and was buried in Mount Auburn, Boston. His Poems, with memoir, appeared in 1867, an English edition of his Poems in 1868, and a Selection from his Prose Writings, edited by Henry A. Beers, New York, 1885. His Life, by Henry A. Beers, appeared in the series of American Men of Letters the same year. WILLIS, THOMAS (1621-1675), English physician, was born at Great Bedwin, Wiltshire, on 27th January 1621. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford ; and when that city was garrisoned for the king he bore arms for the Royalists. He took the degree of bachelor of medicine in 1646, and after the surrender of the garrison applied himself to the practice of his profession. In 1660, shortly after the Restoration, he became Sedleian professor of natural philo sophy in place of Dr Joshua Cross, who was ejected, and the fame year he took the degree of doctor of physic. In 1664 he discovered the medicinal spring at Astrop, near Brackley in Northamptonshire. He was one of the first members of the Royal Society, and was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1664. In 1666, after the fire of London, he removed to Westminster, on the in vitation of Dr Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury. There he rapidly acquired an extensive practice, his reputation and skill marking him out as one of the first physicians of his time. He died at St Martin s on llth November 1675 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Willis was admired for his piety and charity, for his deep insight into natural and experimental philosophy, anatomy, and chemistry, and for the elegance and purity of his Latin style. He wrote in English A Plain and Easy Method for Preserving those that are Well from the Infection of the Plague, and for Curing such as are Infected. His Latin works were printed in two vols. 4to at Geneva in 1676, and at Amsterdam in 1682. His grandson, Browne Willis, was the author of several antiquarian works. See Munk, Roll of the Royal CoUege of Physicians, London (2d ed., vol. i., London, 1S7S). WILLMORE, JAMES TIBBITTS (1800-1863), English line engraver, was born at Bristnall s End, Handsworth, near Birmingham, on 15th September 1800. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to William Radcliffe, a Birmingham engraver, and in 1823 he went to London and was employed for three years by Charles Heath. He was afterwards engaged upon the plates of Brockedon s Passes of the Alps and Turner s England and Wales. He engraved after Chalon, Leitch, Stanfield, Landseer, East- lake, Creswick, and Ansdell, and especially after Turner, from whose Alnwick Castle by Moonlight, the Old Teme- raire, Mercury and Argus, Ancient Rome, and the sub jects of the Rivers of France he executed many admirable plates. He was elected an associate engraver of the Royal Academy in 1843. He died on 12th March 1863. WILLOW (Salix), a very well marked genus of plants constituting, with the Poplar (Populw), the order Salica- cex. Willows are trees or shrubs, varying in stature from a few inches to a hundred feet, and occurring most abund antly in cold or temperate climates in both hemispheres, and generally in moist situations. They are not unrepre sented in the tropics, but have hitherto not been discovered in Australia or the South Sea Islands. Their leaves are deciduous, alternate, simple, generally much more long than broad, whence the term willow-leaved has become proverbial. At their base they are provided with stipules, which are also modified to form the scales investing the winter buds. The flowers are borne in catkins or amenta, which are on one tree male only, on another female. Each Willow. (1) Leaf shoot ; (2) male catkin ; (3) male flower ; (4) female catkin ; (5) female flower ; (6) capsule, opened ; (7) seed. male flower consists of a small scale or bract, in whose axil are usually two, sometimes three, rarely five stamens, and still more rarely a larger number. In addition there is a small glandular disk, which assumes different shapes in different species. The female flowers are equally simple, consisting of a bract, from whose axil arises usually a very short stalk, surmounted by two carpels adherent one to the other for their whole length, except that the upper ends of the styles are separated into two stigmas. When ripe the two carpels separate in the form of two valves and liberate a large number of seeds, each provided at the base with a tuft of silky hairs, and containing a straight embryo with out any investing perisperm or albumen. Fertilization is effected by insects, especially by bees, which are directed in their search by the colour and fragrance of the flowers.