AMENTIFER^. 225 



making hoops foi* containing salted herrings. Dr. Walker tells us that the Dutch 

 boors, without any knowledge of the sexes of plants, selected for propagation those 

 willows which appeared to be of the most vigorous growth, and thus unintentionally 

 propagated only the female. As all the plants originally grown in England were 

 obtained from Holland, we suppose the same must be the case in a great measure 

 here. 



S. viniinalis is ea.sier of culture than any other kind of willow. It will grow any- 

 where in moist soil where the water is not absolutely stagnant, but it does not like 

 peat or moss. Ground on the banks of rivers which can be well irrigated, and also 

 well drained, is the best for the purpose. Osier plantations must be carefully hoed and 

 cleaned every year. Nothing contributes more to a good crop of twigs than keeping 

 the soil and the plants clean. A basket-maker finds more service from a twig G or 8 feet 

 long than from one 3 or 4 feet long. Osiers are usually cut in the autumn, directly 

 after the fall of the leaf, and tied up in bundles for immediate sale, or placed with 

 their thick ends in water, where they remain till the early spring, when they are peeled 

 for the finer kinds of basket-work. The operation of peeling is very simple, and is 

 commonly done by infirm or old men and, women at so much a bundle. It is done 

 with a Kttle instrument which fixes into the ground, and through which the twig is 

 drawn and depiived of its bark. All large baskets and hampers are made from rods 

 of S. viminalis. In Germany, and also frequently in Scotland, the willows, after being 

 cut and tied up in bolls, are stacked or kept in an airy shed, and when the bark is to 

 be removed it is done by boiling or steaming them. Rods thus prepared are supposed 

 to be more durable than other.?. Basket-making is a very simple operation in its 

 commonest form, and used to constitute part of the knowledge of every gardener and 

 country labourer ; it has, however, fallen into disuse among this class of people, and 

 has become a trade of itself. 



SPECIES (?) XII.— SAL IX STIPULARIS. S,n. 



Plate MCCCXXIII. 



Rei'ch. Ic. Fl. Gterm. et Helv. Vol. XI. Tab. DXCVIII. Fig. 1249. 

 Witnm. Sal. Em'op. p. 184. 



Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 1214, Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 230. 



S. viminalis- dasyclados, Wimm. Denkschr. d. s. Ges. p. 162. Wimm. Sal. Europ. 

 p. 185. 



Leaves strapshaped-laiiceolate or narrowly-lanceolate, acute, slightly 

 undulated, and very faintly crenate-serrate, or nearly entire at the 

 margins, which are revolute when young, smooth and green above, 

 greyish-white with satiny hairs beneath. Stipules large, stalked, lan- 

 ceolate, half-cordate. Catkins opening before the leaf-buds expand, 

 subsessile, the male with small nonfoliaceous bracts at the base, 

 oblong, suberect. Female catkins very long, cylindrical, thick, dense, 

 suberect, with small subfoliaceous bracts at the base. Catkin-scales 

 oblong-oblanceolate, pilose, brown at the apex. Stamens 2 ; filaments 

 free, glabrous. Capsule ovate-ovoid, white-tomentose, subsessile; 

 style shorter than the stigmas; stigmas very long, linear, undivided, 



VOL. VIII. G G 



