340 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Salix Capensis, Thunberg. (8. Gariepina, Burchell.) 



South- Africa. This willow might be introduced on account of its 

 resemblance to the ordinary Weeping Willow. Prof. Harvey says of 

 it, that it is one of the greatest ornaments of the banks of the Gariep- 

 River. 



Salix caprea, 



Europe, Northern and Middle Asia. The British Sallow or Hedge- 

 Willow. In Norway it extends to lat. 70 37'; in 65 28' Prof. 

 Schuebeler found it to attain a height of nearly 70 feet. The Kil- 

 marnock Weeping Willow is a .form of this species. Wood used for 

 handles and other implements, the shoots for hoops; it is also largely 

 employed for gunpowder-coal. Bark available for tanning, particu- 

 larly glove-leather. The flowers are eagerly sought by bees. It is 

 one of the earliest flowering of willows, hence with S. daphnoides, as 

 the harbinger of spring, particularly gladdening to bees, although all 

 willows are honey-plants. 



Salix cordata, Muehlenberg. 



One of the Osiers of North- America, extending to Canada. Fit 

 also to bind sand. One of the dwarf Californian willows has been 

 found on the coast-sands to send out root-like stems to 120 feet in 

 length. 



.Salix daphnoides, Villars. 



Northern and Middle Europe and Northern Asia, eastward as far 

 as the Amoor, ascending to 15,000 feet in the Himalayas, growing in 

 Norway northward to lat. 62 20'. A tree, rising to about 60 feet in 

 height, rapid of growth, attaining' 12 feet in four years. It is much 

 chosen to fix the ground at railway-embankments, on sandy ridges 

 and slopes, for which purposes its long-spreading and strong roots 

 render it particularly fit. The twigs can be used for baskets, wicker- 

 work and twig-bridges (Stewart and Brandis). The variety pruinosa 

 is considered by Dr. Sonder to be as valuable as the Bedford- Willow. 

 The foliage furnishes cattle-fodder. The tree is comparatively rich 

 in salicin, like S. pentandra (Linne) and the following. 



.Salix fragilis, Linn<5. 



The Crack- Willow or Withy. Indigenous in South- Western Asia; 

 widely spontaneous also in Europe. Hardy in Norway to lat. 64 5'. 

 Height to 90 feet; stem reaching 20 feet in girth. According to Scaling 

 next to S. alba the best of the European timber-willows, but the 

 wood not quite so tough and the tree requiring more space for growth. 

 Both species are recommended for shelter-plantations, on account of 

 their rapidity of growth, uninflammability and easy propagation; the 

 latter quality they share with most willows. A variety or hybrid of 

 this species is the Bedford- Willow, also called Leicester-Willow, 

 Salix Russelliana (Smith), which yields a light, elastic, tough timber, 

 more tannin in its bark than oak, and more salicin (a substitute for 

 quinine and most valuable as an anti-rheumatic remedy) than most 



