SAL 



SAL 



is a natireof Europe, floweringin April and May. 

 Its wood is white, light, and tough. 



The fifteenth is a very tall, slender, obsequious, 

 muck -growing shrub : the leaf and flower-bads 



distinct : the lea.es rolled back at the edges be- 

 fore they unfold. It is frequently arborescent : 

 the bark grayish, smooth, with here and there a 

 crack : the branches very long, straight, slender, 

 touch : the leaves, especially the lower ones, a 

 span long or more, waved at the edge : the male 

 calkins ovate or oblong, from an inch to an 

 inch and half in length, three or four lines in 

 breadth, on verv short peduncles : stamens two: 

 nectary one: the female catkins ovate-oblong or 

 cylindrical, of the same length with the male, 

 half an inch broad ; peduncle two lines lon^ : 

 the leaves being silvery underneath, the nectary 

 in the male flower being long and slender, and 

 the style in the female flower being very long, 

 are sufficient marks to distinguish it by. It is a 

 native of most parts of Europe. It is the true 

 Osier. 



There are a vast number of varieties in culti- 

 vation for the uses of the basket-maker. Evelyn 

 has enumerated three vulgar sorts : one of little- 

 worth, being brittle, and very much resem- 

 bling the Sallow, with reddish twigs, and more 

 greenish and rounder leaves : a second, called 

 Perch, of limber and green twigs, having a very 

 slender leaf: the third totally like the second, 

 onlv the twigs not altogether so green, but yel- 

 lowish. Tins is the very best, he says, for use, 

 touch and hardv. The most usual names ap- 

 plied to them by basket-makers about London 

 are : the Hard-Gelster, the Horse-Gelster, 

 Whyningj or Shrivelled-Gelster, Black-Gelster, 

 in which Suffolk abounds. Then the Goldstoncs^ 

 the Hard and Soft, Brittle and worst of all the 

 Goldstones ; the Sharp and Slender-topped Yel- 

 low Goldstone ; the Fine Goldstone. Then 

 there is the Yellow Osier, the Green Osier, the 

 Snake or Speckled Osier, Swallow-tail and 

 Spaniard. To these, the editor of Miller's Dic- 

 tionary savs, may be added the Flanders Wil- 

 low, which will arrive to be a large tree — with 

 these coopers tie their hoops to keep them bent. 

 Lastly, the White Swallow, used for green- 

 work ; and if of the toughest sort, to make 

 quarter can-hoops. It is further suggested, that 

 innumerable varieties are cultivated in the osier- 

 crounds for the basket-makers ; and the same 

 frequently under different names in different 

 places, so that it would be difficult and of little 

 use to enumerate them; but that the Dutch and 

 Wire Osiers are esteemed about London. The 

 true Velvet Osier, which is a valuable sort, has, 

 it is said, been made out to be distinct from 

 the vimlnalis. 



Culture.— All these plants are capable of be- 

 ing readily increased by Cttttingl o! the v 

 shoots of one or two years old, in length* 

 a yard or two or three feet ; and th reral 



years growth in truncheons or sets, of from three 

 or four 10 live or six feet long, according to the 

 purposes for which they ire designed"! which 

 strike root most readily in low moisT soils. The 

 proper season for planting them out is any time 

 in open weather, from the beginning of autumn 

 till March; but the early autumn" and spring 

 months are the best, according as the soil may 

 be more moist. In the planting, a long iron- 

 shod dibble is used for the smaller cuttings, and 

 an iron crow for nuking holes for the larger 

 sets, or holes may be made with a spade for 

 very large long pole-cuttings ; though some use 

 no instrument in planting the smaller cuttings, 

 but sharpen the ends of "them, arid thrust them 

 into the ground, especially in soft land ; but as 

 this method is apt to force off the bark from the 

 lower part of the cutting, it is best to cut the 

 bottom of each cutting even, and plant them 

 with some instrument in the above manner. 



These sets are planted for different purposes ; 

 as for timber trees — to form osier grounds — to 

 cut for poles, — for pollards for lopping, &c. 



When they are intended to be raised for tim- 

 ber, the larger growing sorts, such as the white- 

 yellow, and purple, or red willows, Sec. should 

 be chosen, taking cuttings of the strong youno- 

 shoots, which should be planted at once where they 

 are to remain, in any low maishy, or rather moist 

 situation, where they grow with great rapiditv. 

 The ground should be prepared by proper dig- 

 ging, or ploughing, as may be most convenient, 

 and then a quantity of cuttings of the stromr 

 young shoots, of one or two years' growth, cut 

 to half a yard or two feet lengths," should be 

 provided and planted in rows, only six feet 

 asunder, and three or four distant in the rows, 

 that they may draw each other up fast in growth, 

 and allow for a gradual thinning, each catting 

 being inserted two parts of three Into the ground! 

 They soon emit roots, and shoot strongly at top 

 in spring and summer ; but to have them run 

 up with clean stems for full standards, all should 

 be cleared away but one of the strongest leading 

 shoots for a stem, which should be suffered to 

 run up at full length in its future growth. Af- 

 ter a few years, when the trees approach one 

 another, they should be thinned for poles, &c. ; 

 repeating the thinning a few years afterwards, 

 according as the branches of the different trees 

 interfere, leaving them at last about twelve or 

 fifteen feet asunder, to attain their full growth : 

 in this way they draw each other up vei . 

 ditiously with straight handsome stems, to forty 



