514 



SAL 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



SAL 



overflow the place, because if placed the contrary wny, all 

 the filth and weeds will be detained by the sets, which will 

 choke them up. The best season for planting is February ; 

 not sooner, because hard frosts may occur, and cause them 

 to peel, which greatly injures them. These plants are always 

 cut every year, and the yearly produce of an acre has fre- 

 quently been sold for fifteen pounds, but ten pounds is a 

 common price, and is more than corn-land will bring : hence, 

 it is a pity these plants are not more cultivated upon those 

 moist boggy soils where nothing else will thrive. 



41. Salix Acuminata; Long -leaved Sallow. Leaves ovate, 

 oblong, tomentose underneath, the upper ones entire, the 

 lower crenate. This species rises about six feet high, often 

 resembling a small tree. It flowers in March and April, and 

 the capsnles ripen in May. It is common about Oxford ; 

 and Dr. Withering noticed it at Kirkstall Abbey in Yorkshire. 

 See the preceding species. 



42. Salix Pedicellata ; Stalk-capsuled Sallow. Leaves lan- 

 ceolate, wrinkled, tomentose underneath ; capsules pedicel- 

 led, smooth. Found in Barbary. 



43. Salix Viminalis; Common Osier. Not stipuled : leaves 

 lanceolate-linear, very long, almost quite entire, flat, silky 

 underneath ; branches straight and slender. Ray says, this 

 is the true Osier, at least that which is so called in Essex 

 and Cambridgeshire. Varieties of it, and different species, 

 are doubtless cultivated under this name. Innumerable 

 varieties are grown in the Osier grounds for the basket- 

 makers, and the same variety under different names in 

 different places ; so that it would be difficult, and of little 

 use, to enumerate them. The Dutch and Wire Osiers are 

 much esteemed about London. Evelyn enumerates many 

 varieties of Osier known among basket-makers in his time. 

 We have have in England, says he, three vulgar sorts : one 

 of little worth, being brittle, and very much resembling the 

 Sallow, with reddish twigs and more greenish and rounder 

 leaves. A second, called Perch, of limber and green twigs, 

 having a very slender leaf. The third totally like the second, 

 only the twigs not altogether so green, but yellowish. This 

 is the very best for use, tough, and hardy. The most usual 

 names by which basket-makers call them about London, are, 

 the Hard Gelster, the Horse Gelster, Whyning or Shrivelled 

 Gehter, and Black Gelster, in which Suffolk abounds. Then 

 follow the Goldstones, the hard and soft, brittle and worst 

 of all the Goldstones; the sharp and slender-topped yellow 

 Goldsione, and the fine Goldstone. Then there is the Yellow 

 Osier, the Green Osier, the Snake or Speckled Osier, the 

 Swallow Tail, and the Spaniard. To these we may add the 

 Flanders Willow, which will arrive to be a large tree : with 

 these coopers tie their hoops to keep them bent. Lastly, the 

 White Swallow, used for green work ; and if of the toughest 

 sort, to make quarter can-hoops, of which our seamen pro- 

 vide great quantities. Cultivation, &c. In order to raise 

 ;> bed of Osiers, the ground being properly dug over or 

 ploughed, cuttings must be procured of two-years' wood, 

 though the bottom part of trie strongest one-year's shoots 

 may do ; they should be two feet and a half long, a foot and 

 haff to be thrust into the ground, and the other foot to 

 remain for the stool : put them in at two feet distance every 

 way. The first summer the weeds must be kept under; and 

 the next, the tallest must be hacked down. In three years 

 the sets should all be cut down to the first planted heads. 

 They will sell well to the hurdle-maker; and there will be a 

 regular quantity of proper stools for an annual crop of twigs, 

 which will be worth five or six pounds more an acre for the 

 basket-maker. If Osier holts are overflowed by the tide, 

 the rows should go the same way as the stream, and should 



be at a greater distance from each other, that the weeds, 

 &c. may have free course; in this case the cuttings may be 

 planted closer in the rows. Plantations designed to be cut 

 every six or seven years for poles, may be raised in the same 

 manner, only that the cuttings must be a yard asunder : 

 but when intended for hurdles, the distance need not be so 

 great. In Osier holts they commonly mix with the true 

 Osier, the Sallow, the Long-shooting Green Willow, the 

 Crane Willow, the Golden Willow, the Silver Willow, and 

 the Welsh Wicker, for the different purposes of the basket- 

 maker. For timber, the cuttings planted should be of the 

 last year's shoot, a foot and a half long, a foot of which 

 should be thrust into the ground : they should be planted at 

 the distance of three feet every way. At the end of May or 

 the beginning of June, the sets that have shot so luxuriantly 

 should have all the branches removed, except the leading 

 shoot. In low moist situations Osiers may be cultivated, at 

 least on a small scale, with great advantage to every farm : 

 and the first step is, to throw soil into beds, so as to lay the 

 surface sufficiently dry, the Osier disliking an unsound situ- 

 ation. This should be performed in autumn, and in the March 

 following, these beds being firmly established, and their sur- 

 faces in good working order, the soil should be thoroughly 

 trenched with the spade, and truncheons inserted. The 

 method of planting an Osier ground is this : the soil being 

 laid perfectly dry, and its surface made clean, cuttings of 

 the second or third year's growth, and about twelve inches 

 long, are planted in drills, about two feet and a half asun- 

 der, in the month of March. The cuttings ought to be 

 thrust in seven or eight inches deep, leaving four or five 

 inches of head above ground. The intervals should be kept 

 stirred with a small plough ; or the first year a crop of pota- 

 toes may be taken : the drills in either case must be kept 

 perfectly clean with the hand-hoe ; and at the approach of 

 winter, the intervals should be split, and the mould thrown 

 to the roots of the young plants, to lay them dry and warm 

 during winter. The following spring the first year's shoots 

 may be trimmed off, and the plants which have failed must 

 be replaced. The second summer the intervals must be kept, 

 stirred, the drills hoed, and the plants earthed up as before 

 against winter. The ensuing spring the stools may again 

 be cleared, although the twigs as yet will be of little value. 

 But at the third cutting they will produce marketable ware, 

 and will increase in quantity and value, until the profits 

 arising from them will be very great. In situations which 

 the plant affects, and in countries where the twigs are in 

 demand, Osier grounds have been known to pay an annual 

 rent of ten pounds an acre ; and ordinarily, if they be well 

 managed, they will pay four or five. 



44. Salix Cinerea; Cinereous or Gray Sallow. Leaves 

 subserrate, oblong-ovate, subvillose underneath ; stipules half 

 cordate ; branches tough, cylindrical, smooth, reddish. In 

 woods it grows more than six, and sometimes nearly twelve, 

 feet high ; in exposed boggy ground it spreads more, but 

 does not rise so high. The inhabitants of the Highlands and 

 Hebrides frequently use the bark to tan leather. The wood 

 is smooth, soft, white, and flexible. It is often used to make 

 handles for hatchets, prongs, spades, &c. and furnishes shoe- 

 makers with cutting-boards, and whetting-boards to smooth 

 the edges of their knives upon. About Palm Sunday the 

 children in many parts of our island gather the flowering- 

 branches, calling them Palms. It flowers in April, and is a 

 native of Europe, in moist woods and hedges, not in a dry 

 soil. See the fortieth species, for its cultivation, &c. 



45. Salix Alba ; White Willow. Leaves lanceolate, acu- 

 minate, serrate, pubescent on both sides, the lowest serra- 



