FROGBIT 133 



The willow was the symbol of sadness, garlands being worn by 

 forsaken lovers. Willows are weak, but bind other wood. Unhappy 

 lovers had garlands of willow placed on their biers. In Baireuth 

 young girls are said to go at midnight on Easter Day to a fountain 

 silently, and, taking care to escape notice, throw into the water little 

 willow rings, with the names of their friends inscribed thereon; that 

 which sinks first indicating the one first to die. 



The catkins were called Goslings, and children singed them brown, 

 repeating verses the while. The willow was said to be the rod with 

 which Christ was scourged. With knots tied in a willow one could 

 slay a distant enemy, was one belief, and if one tied three knots in an 

 old willow one could cure ague. The trees are pollarded, the branches 

 being cut down every five or six years. The timber is used for 

 fencing, poles, casks, &c. The bark is used for tanning. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



284. Salix fragilis, L. Tree tall, twigs brittle, leaves glabrous, 

 lanceolate, serrate, glaucous, whitish below, catkins on short branches, 

 2 stamens, with style as long as the stigma. 



Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranse, L.) 



Aquatic but delicate, no evidence of its occurrence in early beds 

 is forthcoming. It is found in the N. Temperate Zone in Europe and 

 N. Asia. In Great Britain it does not grow in Cornwall or N. Devon; 

 in the Peninsula and Channel provinces; not in Wilts or Isle of Wight, 

 N. Hants; but in the whole of the Thames province, Anglia, Severn 

 province, except in Mid Lanes; in the Humber province, except in S.E. 

 Yorks, i.e. from Durham to Devon and Kent. It is local in Ireland. 



This is one of those local plants which have been further rendered 

 scarce owing to lack of suitable habitat by modern drainage. It is 

 found in little pools and ditches of a still nature, leading into larger 

 rivers and estuaries, many of which originate in flood time, but after- 

 wards disappear, hence doubtless its mode of reproduction. It is found 

 also in isolated ponds. 



Frogbit is a floating plant with only erect flowering stems, and 

 leaves in clusters at points where roots strike downward and root 

 deeply in the mud below; or it may be floating loose, especially in 

 deeper water. The plant multiplies largely by hibernacula, or stolons, 

 or short shoots, with fibrous roots developing shoots and new leaves 

 which fall off and sink to the bottom. The leaves are stalked, rounded, 

 kidney-shaped, fleshy, and smooth. 



