AMENTIFER^.. 203 



Bay-leaved Willow. 



French, Saule a cinq etamines. German, Fiiiifmdiuiige Weide. 



The varieties of willow ai*e so numerous in this country, and the species are so 

 much alike in general utility and appearance, that it is difficult to distinguish between 

 them, and we therefore design to say something of the history of the genus, and 

 specially to notice the particular uses of any species as it follows in order. The 

 ancients wrote of willows, and Pliny recognised the willow as among the most useful 

 of aquatic trees, furnishing props for vines, and the bark being used for tying up 

 the shoots, and the young branches for basket-making. 



The enormous number of species described by botanists in recent times is most 

 confusing. In 1829 the Duke of Bedford had printed for private circulation the 

 Salidum Wohurnense, in which 160 species are figured and described, for the most 

 part all tlien alive in the salictum at Woburn. Lightfoot, in his "Flora Scotica," 

 paid great attention to willows; but, according to Sir J. E. Smith, "he laboured at 

 the subject with hesitation and mistrust, from an opinion of the species being con- 

 founded by cross-impregnation." 



In an economical point of view, but little was added to our knowledge of the culture 

 and uses of the willow, since the time of the Romans, till the slight notices of the 

 uses of willows by Ray, and afterwards by Evelyn. Willows for basket-making and 

 hoops were chiefly imported from the Continent till the commencement of the present 

 century, when our exclusion from that locality by war led to the formation of plan- 

 tations at home. 



The principal plantations of willows for basket-making in every country are made 

 along the banks of rivers and streams, and in England those on the Thames and the 

 Cam are the most celebrated. In both these rivers and in some others small islands 

 are frequently planted entirely with willows, and are called osier holts. There are 

 many such islands in the Thames between London and Reading. The willow is 

 frequently cultivated as a pollard, the lop being valuable for fence wood, poles, hurdles, 

 and fuel. In the time of Cato a crop of willows was considered so valuable that he 

 ranks the salictum as next in value to the vineyard and the garden. In a state of 

 nature, the willow furnishes food by its leaves to the larvse of moths, gnats, and other 

 insects, and by its flowers to bees. Its wood also is preferred to most others by the 

 beaver. The leaves and young shoots are considered good food for cattle, and in 

 some countries are dried and stacked for the purpose. In a rude state of civilisation 

 the twigs of the willow were used in constructing houses, household utensils, panniers, 

 the harness of horses and cattle, and various other purposes connected with boating 

 and fishing. Dr. Walker relates that he has ridden in the Hebrides with a bridle 

 made of twisted willow twigs, and lain all night at anchor with a cable made of 

 the same material. 



The present species is one of the latest flowering willows, the flower seldom ex- 

 panding till the beginning of June. The flowers are remarkably fragrant, as are the 

 leaves, especially when bruised. The fragrance, which is similar to that of the sweet 

 bay, Laurus 7whilis, only less powerful, is exuded from the resinous notches of the 

 leaves, and from the barren catkins. It is one of the most desirable species for 

 planting in pleasure-grounds, and is the handsomest of the shrubby Enghsh willows, 

 the large and abundant yellow catkins contrasting most agreeably with the copious 

 and shining foHage, wbich has the look of some fine evergreen rather than that of a 

 plant that annually sheds its leaves. It grows well ffom cuttings, and vvill make 



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