AMENTIFERJE. 235 



caprea. Dr. Wimmer, in quoting it as possibly S. Silesiaca, appears to 

 have seen no specimens, but to judge from the descriptions in Smith's 

 " Flora Britannica." 



Great Sallow. 



French, Saule marcemt. German, Sohl ocler Saal Weide. 



This species has several very valuable qualities. The bark serves the Highlanders 

 for tanning, and is no indifferent substitute for cinchona bark in agues. The wood, 

 being white, tough, and smooth in grain, forms excellent hurdles, and good handles 

 for hatchets. It is also used for charcoal, and in the manufacture of gunpowder. 

 The large golden yellow male catkins and the silver grey female ones deck the bare 

 branches in the most beautiful manner, rendering the trees conspicuous in the early 

 spring, and causing them to be the resort of bees in search of honey. In common 

 with other early willows, the sallow is vulgarly called the "palm," and is used by 

 the Roman Catholics of England in their Palm Sunday celebration : — 



" In Rome, upon Palm Sunday, 



They bear true palms ; 

 The cardinals bow reverently, 



And sing old psalms. 

 Elsewhere those psalms are sung 



Beneath the olive branches ; 

 The holly-bough supplies their place 



Amid the avalanches." 



More northern climes must be content, not exactly with " the sad willow," as the 

 poet goes on to say, for that is the Salix Babylmiia, or weeping willow — a plant not 

 used in Roman Catholic celebrations — whereas this one which he intends is an emblem 

 of hope and cheerfulness. It is doubtless the same tree as Rosalind found in the 

 forest bearing the verses in praise of her — " a palm tree," as she calls it, according to 

 Shakspeare. 



Group II.— PHYLICIFOLI^. 



Catkin-scales short, brown, fuscous.. at the apex. Capsule stalked; 

 style long. '^■j 



Shrubs, rarely trees, with the pubescence of the leaves not crisped 

 or woolly. ,/ 



SPECIES (?) XIX.— S ALIX LAURINA. Sm. 

 Plate MCCCXXXIII. 



Reich. Ic. Fl, Germ, et Helv. Vol. XI. Tab. DLXIX. Fig. 2004 



Anders. Mon. Sal. p. 152. Sm. Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. VI. p. 122. Hook. Brit. Fl. 



ed. iv. p. 368. 

 S. Caprea- Weigeliana, Wimm. Sal. Europ. p. 215. 

 S. bicolor, Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 1806, and Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 178. 



Leaves, when they are thin and reddish, at length rather rigid or 

 subcoriaceous, oval-oblong or oval-obovate, shortly acuminate or sub- 



H H 2 



