50 TREES 



our city, and, with care and knowledge, might become more so. In 

 Scotland, for instance, osiers have yielded .30 an acre ! 



Within the last few years makers of cricket-bats have valued the wood 

 of a particular kind of Willow so highly, that at a sale of Willow-trees 

 on Sir Walter Gilbey's estate at Sawbridgeworth, in February, 1906, the 

 best "Bat Willow" realised prices estimated to be equivalent to about 

 "seven shillings per cubic foot," and "40 has been offered for a single 

 tree."* In Germany 48,000 acres of osiers are valued at .396,000 on 

 the stocks, or at double when peeled, and they give employment to 

 40,000 people. Every seven years our water-walks, the banks of our 

 streams, are made hideous by the Pollard. 



Bordering upon the river, there existed from 1825-40 a tolerably good 

 collection of Willows, comprising, through the assiduity of Mr. Baxter and 

 the kindness of Mr. Borrer, nearly a complete series of British species. 

 Many of the smaller kinds were allowed to become overshadowed by 

 the larger ones, and got lost, or were transferred to other parts of the 

 Garden. Others were planted out in the University Parks, where their 

 labels were mixed and their identity forgotten. 



It is a pity, because both Mr. Borrer and his collection were unique. In 

 the words of Sir W. J. Hooker : " No one has ever studied the willows, 

 whether in a growing or a dried state, more deeply or with a less 

 prejudiced mind." ' 



The dwarf species, Salix herbacea and S. reticulata, are 

 worthy of a place in the bed in Herbaceous Plot F. The 

 former in mountainous regions, as in the Alps, overspreads 

 the slopes of the hills with a kind of herbage ; each year two 

 new shoots being put forth, which are covered over in winter 

 by soil washed down from above by rains and torrents, so 

 that the leaves alone appear above ground. Next year, 

 however, each bud again puts forth a young shoot, and so 

 the plant continues to extend itself, until from a comparatively 

 few underground stems the whole surface of the ground is 

 covered with a carpet of matted herbage. Hence it is called 

 Willow Grass. 



At the present time the collection includes Salix alba var. 

 vitellina, caprea, cinerea, fragilis, lanata, myrsinites, nigri- 



* " Kew Bulletin," 1907. 



