AMENTIFERiE. 213 



while it lias the advantage of burning well while green. Willow charcoal is esteemed 

 for gunpowder, and at one time was used to the exclusion of all other. The wood 

 loses half its weight in drying, and sometimes even more. The bark, which is thick 

 and full of cracks, is in nearly as great repute for tanning as that of the oak ; it is also 

 used in medicine, in the cure of agues, as a substitute for cinchona. According to 

 Gilpin, this is one of the few willows which are " beautiful, and fit to appear in the 

 decoration of any rural scene." The silvery grey of the foliage, caused by the closely- 

 pressed silky hairs, renders this tree remarkable, and conspicuous from a long dis- 

 tance ; and when, as often happens, it fringes rivers, it enables us to trace their course 

 across the country — a circumstance ingeniously made use of by landscape-painters. 

 The peculiar colour and the plum-like character of the branches give it also an air of 

 lightness and grace which wonderfully adds to the beauty of the scenery, the contrast 

 with trees of deeper tint producing an effect at once sing-ular and agreeable. The 

 white willow occasionally attains a very large size ; one near Bury St. Edmund's is 

 nearly eighty feet high, while the stem measures nineteen feet in girth : it is called 

 the Abbot's Willow, and is supposed to have been planted before the dissolution of the 

 monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. This is a rare instance of longevity in the 

 willow, for it generally becomes hollow after thirty or forty years, and seldom survives 

 more than half a century. It grows best in a moist but well drained soil, and, 

 though liking the neighbourhood of water, should not have its roots constantly 

 immersed. 



The blue willow grows more rapidly than the common kind, and has sometimes in a 

 few years produced an amount of timber never obtained from any other tree. 



Mr. Loudon says that the golden willow is readily distinguished from all others by 

 the bright yellow colour of its branches. It is much cultivated for basket-work, tying, 

 &c., and also as an ornamental shrub or tree. The rods, being tough and flexible, 

 " are fit for many purposes of basket-work, as well as for package." As an orna- 

 mental tree, it is very striking in the winter season, especially among evergreens. In 

 the English garden at !RIunich extensive masses of this willow are placed in contrast 

 with masses of the white-barked honeysuckle, the red-barked dogwood, and the brown- 

 barked spiraea. The effect in the winter season is very striking, and deserves 

 imitation. 



Group IL— TRIANDR^. 



Catkin-scales persistent. Stamens 3. 



SPECIES(?) VI.— SALIX UNDULATA. Ehrh. 

 Plate MCCCXII. 



Bekh. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XI. Tab. DC VI. Fig. 1261. 



Anders. Mon. Sal. p. 28. 



S. triandi-a-alba, Wimm. Sal. Europ. p. 144. 



S. triandra-viminalis, /3 undulata (exclude S )> Wimm. Denkschr. d. Schles. Ges. 



p. 157. 

 S. lanceolata, Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 1436, and Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 168. 



Leaves lanceolate-strapsliaped or elliptical-strapshaped, longly acu- 

 minate, callous- serrate, dark green and shining above, paler below, 

 at length glabrous on both sides, and subcoriaceous. Stipules half- 



