CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 155 



Welsh or Varnished Willow, a variety readily distinguished by its polished 

 bark. The Crack Willow is a not infrequent tree, and in spring-time it is 

 truly ornamental to marshy places or moist woods, as its beautiful grey 

 catkins hang in tufts from among the leaves like silver pendants. It is a 

 large tree, sometimes even eighty feet high, with a bushy head, and branches 

 arranged obliquely, so that they sometimes cross each other; a form very 

 different from that of most of the Willows, which have their branches usually 

 issuing in almost straight lines from the trunk. The brittle nature of the 

 branches originated the name of Crack Willow ; and this brittleness is so 

 great at the base that they may, during spring, be severed from the trunk 

 by a slight blow. It is commonly in country places called Withy, though 

 this is a very old name for any kind of Willow. The Anglo-Saxon names of 

 the Willow were JVelie, JFelige, and JFilhig ; and Kilian considers that 

 Willighe was given because the tree grows promptly and willingly, that is, 

 freely, as the Latin SaJix e saliendo is from the shoots it makes. The roots 

 of the Crack Willow are used in Sweden to colour the Paschal eggs usually 

 presented among friends and neighbours at Easter. 



The variety of S. frdgilis termed the Varnished Willow is an upright 

 tree, with black buds in spring, the branches of the last year being clay- 

 coloured, smooth, and glossy like porcelain, while the shoots of the present 

 year are of crimson colour, the hue often extending to the midrib of the 

 leaves. It is much cultivated for basket-work. The variety termed the 

 Russell or Bedford Willow (*S'. russelliana) has very smooth, glossy leaves, 

 tapering at both ends, and long cylindrical yellow catkins, standing on short 

 leafy branchlets. Like the Crack Willow, it attains a great height ; but a 

 marked difference in this form exists in the insertion of the long slender 

 branches, which are straight and not angular in their arrangement ; and 

 Mr. Forbes remarks that the two forms, when stripped of their leaves, may 

 readily be distinguished from each other by this circumstance : nor are the 

 branches of the Bedford Willow always brittle. Nearly allied as the two 

 forms are in their general characters, yet they differ in their economical 

 value ; and the Bedford Willow, besides being the handsomer variety, 

 furnishes better wood. Its wood, indeed, is more valuable than that of any 

 other of the Willow tribe. The bark contains more tannin than even that 

 of the oak-tree, and no other Willow furnishes so large a proportion of the 

 principle called salicine, which is considered scarcely inferior in its medicinal 

 properties to quinine, although the bark of most Willows is astringent and 

 tonic. The tree thrives best near water, yet water is not necessary to its 

 growth, and it is planted with success upon some upland soils. It is named 

 after the Duke of Bedford, who, in his " Salictum Woburnense," first attracted 

 attention to it. Dr. Samuel Johnson has made one Willow of this kind 

 famous, by the delight which he took in reposing beneath the full shadow 

 given by its wide boughs and ample foliage. It stood by the public footpath 

 in the fields near Lichfield, and was said to have been planted by the father 

 of the great lexicographer ; while, on the other hand, it has been affirmed 

 that he had set it with his own hand. However that may be, it was a 

 favourite tree with the Doctor, for he used to remark that it had been the 

 delight of his early and waning life ; and had he lived to witness its destruc- 



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