160 SYLVA BOOK i 



on high banks, and ditch-sides within reach of water 

 and the weeping sides of hills ; because they extend 

 their roots deeper than either sallows or willows. 

 For this reason you shall plant them at ten, or twenty 

 foot distance ; and though they grow the slowest of 

 all the twiggie trees, yet do they recompence it with 

 the larger crop ; the wood being tough, and the 

 twigs fit to bind strongly ; the very peelings of the 

 branches being useful to bind arbor-poling, and in 

 topiary-works, vine-yards, espalier-fruit, and the like : 

 And we are told of some that grow twisted into ropes 

 of 1 20 paces, serving instead of cables. There are 

 two principal sorts of these withies, the hoary, and 

 the red-withy, (which is the Greek) toughest, and 

 fittest to bind, whilst the twigs are flexible and tender. 

 3. Sallows grow much faster, if they are planted 

 within reach of water, or in a very moorish ground, 

 or flat plain ; and where the soil is (by reason of 

 extraordinary moisture) unfit for arable, or meadow ; 

 for in these cases, it is an extraordinary improvement: 

 In a word, where birch and alder will thrive. Before 

 you plant them, it is found best to turn the ground 

 with a spade ; especially, if you design them for a 

 flat. We have three sorts of sallows amongst us, 

 (which is one more than the ancients challeng'd, who 

 name only the black and white, which was their 

 nltellina] the vulgar round leav'd, which proves best 

 in dryer banks, and the hopping-sallows, which re- 

 quire a moister soil, growing with incredible celerity: 

 And a third kind, of a different colour from the other 

 two, having the twigs reddish, the leaf not so long, 

 and of a more dusky green ; more brittle whilst it is 

 growing in twigs, and more tough when arriv'd to a 

 competent size : All of them useful for the thatcher. 



