100 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
SALICACE. 
cultivated for this purpose.! Salix is also cultivated to furnish hoop-poles, to protect the banks of 
streams by preventing the soil from washing away from steep slopes, and to supply fodder for 
domestic animals. The bark of Salix is rich in tannic acid, and is employed in tanning leather ;* 
and salicine, a bitter principle, makes it valuable as a tonic and antiperiodic, and in the treatment 
of rheumatism.°® 
In North America Salix is attacked by numerous insects,* which, with few exceptions, affect only 
Salix Pontederana, Schleicher, Cat. Pl. Helv. ed. 3, 25 (not 
Willdenow) (1815). 
Saliz rosea, J. E. Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. Pl. ii. 231 (1821). 
Saliz bifurcata, Chevallier, Flore Envir. Paris, ii. 357 (1827). 
Salix oppositifolia, Host, Salix, 11, t. 38, 39 (1828). 
Salix Carniolica, Host, 1. c. 13, t. 44,45 (1828) ; Fl. Austr. ii. 
641. 
Salix mirabilis, Host, 7. vc. 13, t. 46 (1828). 
Salix discolor, Host, l. c. 18, t. 60, 61 (not Muehlenberg) 
(1828). 
Salix Austriaca, Host, l. c. 19, t. 64 (1828). 
Salix pendulina, Wenderoth, Schrift. Nat. Gesell. Marb. ii. 235 
(1831). 
Salix Woolgariana, Borrer, Smith & Sowerby English Bot. Suppl. 
i. t. 2651 (1831). 
Salix concolor, Host, Fl. Austr. ii. 639 (1831). 
Salix pallida, Ledebour, Fl. Alt. iv. 261 (1833). 
Salix tenuijulis, Ledebour, J. c. 262 (1833) ; Icon. v. t. 453. 
Salix Ledebouriana, Trautvetter, Mém. Sav. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. 
Pétersbourg, iii. 631 (1837). 
Saliz amplexicaulis, Bory et Chaubard, Flore Pélop. 64, t. 36 
(1838). 
Salix Elbrusensis, Boissier, Diag. Pl. Or. Nov. sér. 1, fase. xii. 
117 (1846). 
Salix purpurea, » Lambertiana, Reichenbach, Icon. Fl. German. 
xi. 22, t. 585 (1849). 
Salix hippophaéfolia (?), Ledebour, FZ. Ross. iii. 6€01 (not Thuil- 
lier) (1849). 
Salix Kochiana, Hartig, Forst. Culturpfl. Deutschl. 569 (1851). 
Salix Wimmeriana, Grenier & Godron, Fl. Frang. iii. 1380 (1855). 
Salix Baumgarteniana, Schur, Enum. Pl. Transs. 618 (1866). 
Salix monadelpha, Schur, J. c. (1866). 
Salix purpurea, which is a tall shrub and one of the most variable 
of the Old World Willows, is distributed through Europe from 
central Scandinavia southward, and through northern Africa and 
western Asia. It is often cultivated as an osier plant, and in the 
United States it has been more frequently planted in osier beds 
than any other species, although in the dry hot climate of the cen- 
tral states it appears to produce less valuable material than in 
Europe. The bitterness of the twigs and leaves protects it from 
browsing animals and increases its value as a hedge plant (Scaling, 
The Cultivation of the Willow or Osier, 25). 
1 The cultivation of Willows to produce vigorous shoots for 
basket-making has been practiced for centuries in Holland, Bel- 
gium, Germany, and France, and became an important industry in 
Great Britain during the first years of the present century, many 
thousand acres of ground being devoted in Europe to it. Several 
Species are used in different countries, and nearly all Willows 
when properly cultivated yield shoots suitable for the purpose. 
Strong low but well drained soil, heavily manured and kept free 
from weeds, produces the most valuable shoots. Plantations are 
made by inserting cuttings in straight lines, the distance between 
the plants varying according to the species used and the practice 
of different cultivators. Osier holts, as these plantations are usually 
called in England, continue productive for many years, and annu- 
ally furnish five or six tons of shoots to the acre. (See Wade, Salices, 
407. — Loudon, Arb. Brit. iii. 1458. — Motrier, Traite Pratique dela 
Culture de U Osier. — Sealing, The Cultivation of the Willow or Osier.) 
The cultivation of Willows for basket-making has become estab- 
lished in the United States, especially in the neighborhood of Syra- 
cuse in the state of New York, where several thousand persons are 
engaged during the winter months in the manufacture of coarse 
baskets, and in New Jersey and Maryland, and in the neighborhood 
of Cincinnati and St. Louis. Osier holts in the United States are 
rarely more than a few acres in extent, and are usually composed 
of Salix purpurea, only coarse baskets being made from American 
grown material, a large part of the Willow shoots used in the 
United States in the manufacture of baskets being still imported 
from Europe. (See Porcher, Resources of Southern Fields and For- 
ests, 335. — Rep. Dep. Agric. U. S. 1872, 452 ; 1873, 254 ; 1886, 
223 ; 1888, 285.) 
In Japan Osiers of different species are plaited into coarse hats, 
baskets, and other articles of wicker-work. (See Rein, Industries 
of Japan, 173.) 
The tough bast-like inner bark peeled from Osier shoots is used 
(See Spons, 
Encyclopedia of the Arts, Industries, and Raw Commercial Products, 
i. 995.) 
2 Bartholdi, Allgemeiner Journal der Chemie, viii. 294 (Chemische 
Untersuchung der Rinde der gemeinen weissen Weide). — Johanson, 
in Europe in dyeing, and is manufactured into paper. 
Beitrdge zur Chemie der Eichen, Weiden und Ulmenrinde. — Eitner, 
Neue Bezugsquelle fiir Weidenrinde, Der Gerber, iii. 109. — Héhnel, 
Die Gerberinden, 87. 
8 Porcher, J. c. 334. — Aubert, Etude sur les Saules et la Salicine, 
49.— Guibourt, Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ii. 312.— Johnson, Man. Med. 
Pl. N. Am. 253.— U.S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1315. 
+ With the exception of the genus Quercus, Salix affords food to 
a larger number of insect species than any other genus of North 
Kaltenbach gives a list of three hundred and 
ninety-six species found upon Willows in Europe, and Packard 
enumerates two hundred and twenty-three which occur upon Salix 
in North America, although not all of them have been identified. 
Little is known of the borers which infest the wood of the living 
trunks and branches ; but among the Lepidoptera one or more 
American trees. 
species of Cosside have been observed, and among beetles several 
species of Bupestris and Saperda. One of the most destructive 
pests to the plants of this genus is Cryptorhynchus Lapathi, Linneus, 
a beetle of probably recent introduction from Europe, whose larve 
have become exceedingly destructive to the stems of many species 
of native Willows in different parts of the Atlantic states. 
Leaf-eating Lepidoptera are abundant on Salix in North America, 
being represented by many genera, and in some genera, like Cato- 
eala, Apatela, and Cerura, by numerous species. The gregarious 
and bristly black larvae of Vanessa Antiopa, Linnzus, are some- 
times so abundant as to strip limbs or whole trees of their foliage, 
and species of Limenitis and other butterflies are often common 
