Salix.] LXXI. SALICINEiE. 465 



S. daphnoides and purpurea is bitter, and contains a crystalline principle called 

 Salicine, which has been used in Europe, with doubtful success, as an antiperi- 

 odic and tonic. The bark of some kinds contains as much as 3-4 per cent of this 

 substance. 



3. S. babylonica, Linn. Tab. LIX. DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 212. Syn. 

 S. pendula, Moench ; C. Koch, Dendrologie, ii. 507. Weeping Willow. 

 Vern. Bisa, bada, bed, Tcatira, majnun, Pb. ; Giur, Kashmir. 



A large tree with drooping branches, glabrous shining branchlets, and 

 thin cylindric acute buds. Leaves glabrous, pale or glaucous beneath, 

 petiole sometimes hairy and the youngest leaves occasionally with a few 

 adpressed hairs, linear- lanceolate, 3-6 in. long, generally not more than 

 J in. wide, finely serrulate, midrib whitish, prominent, lateral nerves 

 numerous but not conspicuous ; stipules falcate, serrate. Flowers appear- 

 ing with the leaves ; catkins on peduncles with a few small leaves. Male 

 catkins short, cylindric, slender, curved, J-l in. long, of a straw-yellow 

 colour ; scales lanceolate, pale, hairy as well as rachis ; stamens 2 free, 

 anthers short, elliptic. Female catkins drooping, 1 in. long ; scales lan- 

 ceolate, pale ; capsules sessile, conical, glabrous or slightly pubescent at 

 the base ; stigmas 2, sessile. 



Cultivated in Afghanistan. Commonly planted in the plains of North- West 

 India, westward more common ; also in the Himalaya (to 9000 ft. on the 

 Jhelam), Kamaon, Nepal, Sikkim (to 7000 ft.), Bhutan (to 8000 ft.) In North 

 India the male tree is much more common than the female tree. Wild, accord- 

 ing to Dr Stewart, in places on the eastern flanks of the Suliman range, and 

 "apparently indigenous," according to Aitchison (Cat. 140), in one locality near 

 Hushiarpur. 



Cultivated in South and Central Europe (Britain, Denmark, but not in 

 Northern Scandinavia and Russia), and in most subtropical countries. Pos- 

 sibly wild in North China, Persia, and Kurdistan (the specimens collected by 

 Kotschy are in leaf only). Introduced into Europe, the female tree only, 

 and propagated by cuttings, in the seventeenth century, possibly earlier ; repre- 

 sented by Benvenuto Cellini on a basin at Florence, executed in the sixteenth 

 century. (Extracts from Targioni-Tozetti, historical notes on the introduction 

 of various plants into Tuscany, in Journ. Hort. Soc. of London, ix. 1855, 177.) 

 Not mentioned by classical writers. The Garab of the 137th Psalm, which Lin- 

 naeus considered the Weeping Willow, and called 8. babylonica, was, as pointed 

 out by C. Koch 1. c. 507, probably not a Willow, but Populus euphratica. In 

 the Panjab it is leafless during the cold season, and the new foliage appears in 

 Feb., March. Fl. Feb.-May. Attains 50 ft. with a straight erect trunk, 6-7 ft., 

 at times 10-12 ft. girth, branches numerous large spreading, forming an elegant 

 oval crown, the branchlets always drooping, sometimes nearly reaching the ground 

 exactly as the Weeping Willow cultivated in Europe. Bark |-| in. thick, grey, 

 yellowish-grey or brownish, cleft into narrow smooth shining plates by wide, 

 shallow, rough furrows and short straight transverse cracks. Wood close- and 

 even-grained, takes polish. The chief use of the tree is that the branches are 

 made into baskets, wattles, and are used for weirs and the protection of canal- 

 banks. It is propagated by cuttings, and grows rapidly if sufficiently supplied 

 with water. Dr Stewart records 4-5 rings per in. and a girth of 4 ft. as the 

 average of 6 trees, 10 years planted out. 



Andersson classes S. japonica, Thunb. Fl. Jap. 24, with longer cylindrical 



2G 



