SALIX. THE ENGLISH FLOWER 



SALIX. 



699 



but it is not very particular as to soil : 

 fine trees may be seen in old gardens. 

 Its fruits are said to be eaten in China 

 and Japan, but they are rarely pro- 

 duced here. There are two or three 

 varieties of the tree, and when raised 

 from seed, as it always should be, 

 there are individual differences. Syn., 

 Ginkgo biloba. 



SALIX ( Willow) . Large and 

 medium sized trees, shrubs, and even 

 alpine trailers of northern and tem- 

 perate countries, mostly hardy and of 

 singular beauty and interest for our 

 gardens and home grounds, in which 

 they are much neglected. Notwith- 

 standing the number of trees in the 

 country, I doubt if there is a more 

 picturesque one than the Babylonian 

 Willow, which is not common in many 

 districts about London, although it is 

 by the river and in the eastern coun- 

 ties. There are many, however, who 

 plant this who do not care for hand- 

 some Willows of erect habit, but, as 

 we think, more beauty of colour, 

 such as the scarlet-barked or Cardinal 

 Willow, and even the old yellow 

 Willow. Of late years a number of j 

 other Weeping Willows have been 

 propagated in Germany and elsewhere, 

 so that we are no longer confined to 

 the old Weeping Willow, which was j 

 apt to be cut down occasionally in 

 hard winters. When the gardener 

 plants a Willow, it is generally some 

 curious one with a mop head, like the 

 " American " Weeping Willow. Coun- 

 try gentlemen should therefore take 

 the Tree Willows under their own care, 

 and plant them in bold groups and 

 colonies here and there, by water or 

 in wet or marshy places. A marshy 

 place planted with underwood formed 

 of the yellow or red Willow would 

 be charmingly picturesque in winter 

 indeed, at all times and there is | 

 no difficulty in getting any of these j 

 Willows by the hundred or thousand. I 

 In places which are much haunted by 

 the rabbit, young Willows of these ! 

 kinds go very rapidly, and, planted by 

 streams in meadows where there are 

 cattle, they are nibbled down, so that 

 in certain districts a little care may be 

 wanted to protect them. None of the 

 Willows here mentioned should be ever 

 grafted. I have skeleton Willows 

 alongside some ponds, the sad remains 

 of grafted Willows which were inter- 

 esting and little - known kinds, all 

 grafted on the common Sallow (Salix 

 caprea) . The grafted portion gradually 



died ; the stump on which they are 

 grafted remained sound, and from it 

 have come the vigorous shoots of 

 many Withies. Inasmuch as the whole 

 country and the woods near have 

 many of the same tree, which seeds 

 everywhere, this unsought plantation 

 of a common tree by garden ponds is 

 far from a gain. " As easy to strike 

 as a Willow," is a proverb among gar- 

 deners, and there is no good reason for 

 grafting these plants. The graceful 

 Willow, called in our gardens the 

 American Willow, is invariably grafted 

 on the Sallow, and if not watched and 

 the suckers removed, will quickly 

 perish ; but if a shoot of this plant 

 be hanging into water it quickly roots, 

 showing how easily the trees could be 

 increased if nurserymen would take 

 the trouble to do it in the right way. 

 The objection to the grafting is, first 

 of all, the frequent death of the tree ; 

 secondly, falsified and weak growth, 

 and where it does not die, endless 

 trouble ; thirdly, we lose some of the 

 true uses of the tree, the habit not 

 lending itself always to grafting on the 

 standard form. Why should we not 

 be able to use the Weeping Willows as 

 rock or bank plants, not on standards, 

 in which form the growth is often less 

 graceful than on our own root trees ? 

 Though we think the finest Willows 

 for effect in the landscape are the Tree 

 Willows, in all garden ground the 

 Weeping Willows are likely to be the 

 most planted, and we should guard 

 against an excessive use of them in 

 home landscape owing to this same 

 weeping habit. One large isolated 

 Weeping Willow, or a group of such 

 trees on the margin of water, gives a 

 much better effect than a number 

 dotted about. Further, the Weeping 

 Willow ungrafted when isolated has 

 an advantage over many other weeping 

 trees in its beauty of habit ; all is grace 

 and softness, like a fountain of water, 

 the branches rise lightly into the air 

 to fall again gracefully. On the other 

 \ hand, in most other weeping trees 

 j artificially made by grafting on stan- 

 i dards there is none of this lightness 

 of aspect and of form. Willows are 

 ! admirably suited for giving us an 

 ! abundance of shade where this is 

 ', desired, and they are among the hardy 

 trees that thrive in and near towns. 

 Only the Willows most effective in the 

 home landscape and in the home woods 

 are named here. Some small and 

 alpine Willows are interesting for the 



