224 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Var. a, genuina. 



Leaves strapshaped. Style as long as or longer than the stigmas; 

 stigmas undivided. 



Var. jS, intricata. Leefe. 



Leaves lanceolate-strapshaped. Capsule shorter and broader than 

 in var. a. Style shorter than the stigmas ; stigmas very long, gene- 

 rally cleft. 



By the sides of streams and in moist meadows and in osier beds. 

 Very common, and generally distributed, except in tlie north of 

 Scotland. Considered a doubtful native of Ireland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Shrub or tree. Sprmg. 



A bush or small tree, rarely above 10 feet high, but occasionally 

 attaining to 20 or 30 feet, with very long straight virgate branches, 

 more or less silky-downy when young, at length polished and olive or 

 chestnut. Leaves very numerous, 4 inches to 1 foot long, wdth short 

 petioles. Buds thinly downy. Male catkins f to 1^ inch long. 

 Catkin-scales brown, darker towards the apex. Anthers bright 

 yellow. Female catkins f to 1 inch in flower, lengthening in fruit. 

 (Jvary ^ inch long, at first almost sessile, afterwards with a stalk which 

 is shorter than the narrow long incurved nectary. 



The length of the style and stigmas are liable to a slight variation, 

 and also the width of the leaves. On the whole this is one of the 

 best marked species of the genus Salix. Judging from the Rev. Mr. 

 Leefe's specimens, I am unable to separate his vars. intricata and 

 stipularis. 



Common Osier. 



French, Saule a longues feuilles. German, Korh-Weide. 



Tliis is the true osier, and is cultivated extensively on account of its long pliant 

 shoots, ■which exceed in length those of any other species. The nse of willows in 

 basket-making seems to be of very ancient date. Martial, in a well-known verse, 

 alludes to the practice by the ancient Bz-itons. Translated it reads thus : — 



" From Britain's painted sons I came, 

 And basket is my barbarous name, 

 But now I am so modish grown, 

 That Rome would claim me for her oa^ti." 



The Druids are said to have formed huge figures of wicker-work, which on great 

 occasions were filled with criminals and set fire to ; but these baskets, according to 

 Burnet and others, were made from twigs of the oak, and not of the willow. The 

 Celtic Britons used the willow twigs, however, for constructing their skin-covered 

 boats and shields. The present species of willow was cultivated in Holland from the 

 first establishment of the lien-iug fishery in that countjy in 1164, for the purpose of 



