in Extra-Tropical Countries. 339- 



silvery-pubescent. Wood smooth, soft and tough, bearing pounding 

 and knocking better than that of any other British tree; eligible where 

 lightness, pliancy and elasticity are required; hence in request for 

 wheel-floats and shrouding of water-wheels, as it is not subject to 

 splinter; for the sides and bottoms of carts and barrows, for break- 

 blocks of trucks; also used for turnery, trays, fenders, shoe-lasts, 

 light handles (Simmonds). Its weight is from 26 to 33 Ibs. per 

 cubic foot. Timber, according to Rbbb, the lightest and softest of all 

 prominently utilitarian woods; available for bungs; it. is planed into 

 chips for hat-boxes, baskets and woven bonnets; also worked np for 

 cricket-bats, boxes and many utensils. The bark is particularly 

 valued as a tan for certain kinds of glove-leather, to which it imparts 

 an agreeable odor. Mr. Scaling records, that in rich ground on the 

 banks of streams this willow will grow to a height of 24 feet in 5 

 years, with 2 feet basal girth of the stem; in 8 years he found it to 

 grow 35 feet, with 33 inches girth at 1 foot from the ground. London 

 noticed the height to be 53 feet in 20 years, and the girth 7^ feet. 

 In winterless countries the growth is still more rapid. To produce 

 straight stems for timber, the cuttings must be planted very close, 

 some of the trees to be removed from time to time. After 30 or 40 

 years the trees will deteriorate. Scaling estimates the value of an 

 acre of willow-timber to be about 300. The Golden Osier, Salix 

 vitellina, L., is a variety. The shoots are used for hoops and wicker- 

 work. With other large willows and poplars one of the best 

 scavengers for back -yards, where drainage cannot readily be applied; 

 highly valuable also for forming lines along narrow watercourses or 

 valleys in forests, to stay bush-fires. The charcoal excellent for gun- 

 powder. The wood in demand for matches. All willows, as 

 early flowering, are of particular importance to apiarists (Cook, 

 Quinby). The extreme rapidity of growth of most willowtrees and 

 poplars, particularly in mild climes, renders it quite feasible, to rear 

 them purposely for providing wood as an adjunct to paper-material, 

 particularly on ground not eligible as agrarian. 



Salix Babylonica, Tournefort. 



The Weeping Willow. Indigenous in North-China, sparingly wild,, 

 according to Stewart, in the Himalayas; probably likewise in Persia- 

 and Kurdistan. One of the most grateful of all trees for the facility 

 of its culture and its fitness for embellishment; also as one of the 

 quickest growing and most easily reared of all shade-trees. Fifty 

 feet upward growth has been witnessed in five years. The tree is 

 important for consolidating river-banks, and everywhere available for 

 cemeteries. In frostless climes annually only for a few weeks without 

 leaves. In Norway it will grow northward to lat. 58 8'. A powerful, 

 scavenger of back-yards, but apt to undermine masonry and to get 

 into cisterns. Dr. C. Koch prefers Moench's name S. pendula, as the 

 Weeping Willow is not a native of Babylon, and he distinguishes 

 another Weeping Willow from Japan as S. elegantissima, which is 

 still hardier than S. Babylonica; allied also is S. Japonica. 



