Water-side planting 109 



but for good effect the best are the ' Tree Willows ' — 

 those which may be had on their natural roots, and of 

 some timber value. The best of these for our country 

 IS the White Willow, lovely at all times, but especially 

 on days of storm, when other things are often at their 

 worst. The best effect from planting I ever had was 

 from putting a bundle of White Willows on an ugly 

 bank across a lake ; the effect obtained is excellent, and 

 even the stiff bank is lost to view. The hybrids of the 

 White Willow (Bedford Willow) are good also, and next 

 best for colour is the Yellow Willow {Salix vitellina)— 

 classed by botanists as a variety of the White Willow, 

 but for planters distinct in stature, form, and colour. 

 It is often seen beside northern and Irish rivers, but, 

 when massed in a marsh or bog, or beside a wide river, 

 it is fine in effect and the best of all in wintry days. 

 The Red Willow (Cardinal Willow) is a form of it, of 

 even brighter colour. The Crack Willow (5. fragilis) 

 is not so showy in colour, but is very picturesque in 

 form upon river banks, and quite worthy of a place 

 among the Tree Willows. The new weeping form of 

 the Yellow Willow (5. vitellina penditla) is beautiful, but 

 the desire to increase it quickly has led to grafting in 

 nurseries, which means death, and ugliness in dying. 

 To strike root as freely as a Willow is a proverb, yet 

 men will graft Willows where the result is certain failure. 

 There is not only the loss of a beautiful tree, but the 

 stock upon which it is grafted— usually the Osier (5. 

 viminalis) — comes up instead, like a tree-weed, to obscure 

 the view, and is difficult to get rid of. Many beautiful 

 Willows of a rarer kind than the Tree Willows here 

 named have been raised, but the few who plant lose 

 them through grafting on the Osier. 



