152 AMENTACE^ 



smooth and glossy, and of yellowish-green colour. The fertile catkins much 

 resemble those of the last species. 



This is one of the Willows greatly used by the basket-makers, its tough 

 flexible twigs serving well for the finer kinds of wicker-work. As Grahame 



says — 



" To name the uses of the Willow tribes 

 Were eudless task. The basket's various forms 

 For various purposes of household thrift, 

 The wicker-chair, of size and shape antique, 

 The rocking-couch of sleeping infancy — 

 These, with unnumber'd other forms and kinds. 

 Give bread to hands uniit for other work." 



Several species of Willow are grown for these uses in Osier-holts, though 

 of late years large numl^ers of Osiers have been imported from Holland, in 

 which country the " Willows by the watercourses " are very numerous. 

 The Common Osier, S. mniinalis, and the Three-stamened Osier, S. triandra, 

 are among those most commonly planted ; and large patches of low land, too 

 moist for the growth of other trees, are in Holland and Spain covered with 

 Osiers. In this kingdom, in the Hat parts of Lancashire, as well as on the 

 great level of the Fens, Osier-grounds are not infrequent, and are sometimes 

 sixty or seventy acres in extent ; spots being chosen for Osier-holts whose 

 surface is not overflowed with water during summer for more than a few 

 days, though an inundation lasting through three of the winter months is 

 luiimportant. Several different kinds of Osier may be grown on the same 

 ground, and the land is cultivated at small expense, but it is necessary that 

 it should be kept free from weeds. The Osiers are suffered to grow for two 

 years, after which their flexible boughs are cut annually, and the plant either 

 sold "green," as it is technically called, by the acre, or the shoots are cut and 

 tied up in bundles — the larger growers generally disposing of them in the 

 latter mode. They are prepared for the basket-maker's use by setting them 

 up immediately after cutting, with their thicker ends a few inches deep in 

 water, and after a time stripping off the bark ; and in Essex, as well as some 

 other counties, groups of country people may be seen sitting on the village 

 green engaged in preparing the Osier-boughs. 



4. Green-leaved Osier (*S'. rubra). — Filaments united at the base only ; 

 capsule oblong egg-shaped; style elongated; stigmas undivided; leaves 

 alternate, linear-lanceolate (broader in the fertile plant), tapering to a point, 

 and serrated ; stipules minute. This plant of the wet meadow, or Osier-holt, 

 is rare in England, though not unfrequent in the hedges and Osier-grounds 

 of Scotland. It occurs about Maidenhead and near Salisbury, in several 

 parts of Cambridgeshire, and a few other localities. The Green-leaved Osier 

 is a small tree, flowering in April and May, with long erect branches, usually 

 of a dull brown, but sometimes of a greyish or purplish tint. Its leaves are 

 long, narrow, and tapering, of full green hue, and its anthers are yellow. 

 It has no claims to the character of redness implied in its specific name, and 

 this was given originally to a species with which it was confounded. When 

 planted, it sometimes grows to the height of thirty feet, and its shoots, which 

 arc from five to eight feet long, arc useful for basket-work, crates, and other 

 purposes. 



