THE WILLOW. 313 



shoots, and narrow, pointed leaves. These being planted 

 for the sake of their young rods, are rarely suffered to attain 

 their full size, with the exception of the Golden Osier, 

 which is often to be found in gardens and shrubberies, 

 where its bright yellow branches are very ornamental, 

 especially in winter. 



Those which are best adapted for basket-making are the 

 Common Osier, S. viminalis, and the Three-stamened 

 Osier, /S. triandra. They should be planted in low and 

 naturally moist situations, and in a deep, well-drained soil, 

 which, to be productive, should be kept well cleared of 

 weeds. In the second autumn after planting the shoots 

 are fit to be cut ; and the process is repeated every year, 

 immediately after the fall of the leaf, when the wood is 

 thoroughly ripe. If they are not wanted to be used with 

 the bark on, they are tied up in bundles, and placed on 

 end in standing water until the following spring. When 

 the buds begin to shoot, the rods are ready for peeling ; 

 and after this process they will keep for a very long time. 

 Of late years large quantities of Osiers have been imported 

 from Holland, in consequence of which Willow-holts in 

 England are far less profitable than they used to be. 



Osiers are not unfrequently planted by the wayside and 

 in low meadows, as pollards, for the purpose of supplying 

 poles and stakes. The centres of these trees very soon 

 decay, and the young buds send down roots into the mass 

 of rotten wood, sometimes until the cavity is nearly filled. 

 Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Oxfordshire, mentions 

 some Pollard Willows, on which seeds of Ash had. been 

 accidentally lodged and germinated, so that " the roots of 

 the Ashes had, some of them, grown down through the 

 whole length of the trunks of the Willows, and at last, 

 fastening into the earth itself, so extended themselves that 

 they burst the Willows in sunder, whose sides falling away 

 from them, and perishing by degrees, what before were 

 but the roots are now become the bodies of the Ashes 

 themselves." Loudon records a yet more remarkable 



P 



