1462 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. TART III. 



the |)liim. All the shrubby species are interesting or beautiful when planted 



simply, and alloweil to take their natural .shapes ; but, unless planted very thinly 

 and allDwc'd to grow old anil rounil-licadcd, tlicy do not mass well together. 

 Tiiey are therefore well adapted for the arboretuu), and for indicating water, 

 or moist situations, but not for general use in ornamental plantations. Where- 

 cver willows are planted for the beauty of their blossoms, the male plant should 

 be chosen; because the colour and ettect are produced chieHy by the anthers. 

 Willows in general, (]!ili)in observes, are trees of a straggling ramification, and 

 but ill adaptcil for use in artificial landscape ; " except as |)ollards to charac- 

 terise a marshy country ; or to mark, in a second distance, the winding banks 

 of a heavy, low, sunk river ; which could not otherwise be noticed." Some 

 species, he says, he has atlmired ; and he particularises the .S". alba, as having 

 a " pleasant, light, sea-green tint, which mixes agreeably with foliage of a 

 deeper hue." liy far the most beautiful willow, when in flower, is S. caprea, 

 the catkins of which are not only larger than those of every other species, 

 but protluced in greater abundance. Hence the great beauty of this willow 

 in early spring, and its importance as furnishing food to bees. " It is in 

 flower," says Dr. Walker, speaking with reference to the climate of Edin- 

 burgh, "between the Joth of March and the 8th of April. During this 

 time, whenever the thermometer is at or about ■i2'^ in the shade, accom|)anied 

 with sunshine, the bees come abroad. This is a temperature which often 

 occurs ; and, if bees have an opportunity, during that interval, of feeding 

 three or four days upon this willow, the hive will be preserved, when, without 

 this, it would probably perish." 



As a curious use of the willow, it is mentioned in the Kouveau Du Hamel, 

 that the roots are more readily changed into branches, and the branches into 

 roots, than in any other species of a tree. All that is necessary is, to take up 

 a plant, and bury the whole of the branches in the soil, leaving the whole of 

 the roots above ground. Poirct, the writer of the article, says he saw this 

 done, in the neighbourhood of Marseilles, with a great number of plants oi S. 

 alba; that the larger twisted roots became the principal branches, and pre- 

 served their general forms ; but that the young shoots jjroduced by these took 

 the forms and appearances coninion to the species in its natural state. 



Poetical and legendari/ Alln.sions. The willow does not appear to have been 

 celebrated by any of the Greek poets, nor by any of the Latins, before the 

 Augustan age. Herodotus, however, speaks of the willow divining-rods of 

 the ancient Scythians ; and the use of the willow in basketwork, &.C., is men- 

 tioned by many of the Latin prose writers. Martial alludes to the baskets 

 (^bascatidce) made of willow twigs by the ancient Britons. 



" Barbara de pictis voni bascaucia Britannis : 

 Sod iiiu jam mavult tlicere Koma suam." 



" From Britain's painted sons I came, 

 And Basket is my barbarous name : 

 But now I am so modish grown. 

 That Home would claim me for lier own." 



The druids are said to have formed huge figures of wickerwork, which, on 

 great occasions, were filled with criminals, and set fire to (see Saf. Mag., 

 vol. i. p. 74.) : but these baskets, according to Bin-net and others, were 

 formed of the twigs of the oak, and not the willow. Virgil, Lucan, and 

 many other of the Latiu poets, speak of the boats, shields, and other articles 

 formed, both by the Britons and Itomans, from the twigs and branches of this 

 tree. 



" The bending willow into barks they twine. 

 Then line the work with spoils of slaugliter'd kinc." 



Kowii's Lucan, book iv. 



Ovid gives a very good description of the situation in which willows generally 

 grow : — 



" A hollow vale, where watery torrents gush. 

 Sinks in the plain ; the osier and the rush. 

 The marshy sc<l({C and bending willow, m.'i 

 Their trailing foli.iec o'er the oozy sod." Met., lib. vii. 



