154 AMENTACE^ 



7. Sweet Bay-leaved Willow (S. pentdndra). — Leaves egg-shaped, 

 pointed, glossy, on footstalks which are glandular at the summit. This is 

 one of the most ornamental of our native Willows, scarcely indeed remind- 

 ing us of the Willow tribe, its large plentiful deep-green leaves resembling 

 rather those of our cultivated evergreens. When growing wild it is but a 

 bushy shrub, rarely more than eight feet high ; but Avhen cultivated, it 

 becomes a tree reaching to the height of twenty feet. Home such Willows 

 may be seen leflected in the waters of pleasure-grounds, though less fre- 

 quently than from its beauty one might expect. It often forms compact, 

 hardy-looking bushes by the stream-sides of the north of England, and in 

 Ireland; and the Rev. C. A. Johns remarks of it, in his "Forest Trees of 

 Britain," that he has seen bushy hedges of this AVillow stretching across the 

 extensive bogs which abound in the neighbourhood of the Giant's Causeway. 

 Its leaves are fragrant, and, when bruised, as sweet as those of the bay-tree. 

 It flowers in May and June, and is, consequently, the latest of our native 

 species to flower. Its beautiful catkins are also sweet-scented, and by the 

 middle of summer are very ornamental, with the bursting seed-vessels, which 

 are sending forth their thousands of seeds to be borne through the air by 

 their snow-Avhite wings. In the earlier months the silky down of several 

 Willows had served as lining for the nests of many a singing-bird, and now 

 the small seeds are yielding them a large store of food. This down may be 

 collected for filling cushions and pillows, and is used in making an inferior 

 paper ; while, when mixed with a third part of cotton, it has been advan- 

 tageously adopted for candle-wicks and other purposes. The Germans mingle 

 it with other materials in making a kind of wadding for ladies' dresses. The 

 wood of this Willow is too brittle to be of much importance, but the tree 

 produces long flexible twigs, fitted for basket-work. 



8. Cuspidate Willow (»S'. cuspiddta). — Leaves oblong-lanceolate, pointed, 

 smooth, green and shining above, rather pale beneath, but not of sea-green 

 tint, serrated ; stipules half heart-shaped, obliqvie ; stamens 3 — 4 ; stigmas 

 2-cleft. This AVillow is scarcely different from the last, the form of the 

 stipules and the longer stalk of the ovary forming the chief distinctive 

 characters. It is a handsome tree, with large, broad, shining leaves, and 

 brownish smooth branches, somewhat warty. It has long slender catkins in 

 March and April. It occurs near Shrewsbury, but is a doubtful native, 

 having probably been introduced from Sweden or Germany. It was by 

 Willdenow termed S. meijeriana. 



Group IV. Fragiles and Alb.e. — Borr. 



Stamens 2 to a flower; flowers very loosely disposed in the catkins, 

 which appear with the leaves on short lateral leafy shoots ; leaves lanceolate, 

 serrated, smooth, and stipuled. 



9. Crack Willow {S. frdgilis). — Leaves smooth or downy beneath, 

 when young ; stipules half heart-shaped ; capsules more or less stalked ; 

 style conspicuous. Some remarkable varieties occur in this species. The 

 leaves are either egg-shaped, lanceolate, or the}^ are lanceolate, tapering at 

 both ends, as in the Bedford Willow, in which they are also downy during 

 their early stage ; or they are lanceolate and quite smooth, as in the White 



