CATKIN-BEARING TREES 277 



have two stamens. The leaves, which appear later, are 

 broad and oval and have somewhat kidney-shaped stipules. 



The Osier (S. viminalis) is common in wet hollows, by 

 stream- and river-sides, and especially in low-lying, marshy 

 districts, where it is frequently coppiced, i. e. cut close to the 

 ground. From both adventitious and dormant buds on 

 the stool, very long, flexible, switch-like branches grow, 

 which are used for basket-making. The catkins are long 

 and slender, the male flowers have two stamens, and the 

 capsules are hairy. The leaves (Fig. 78) have narrow 

 stipules ; the blades are from four to eight inches long, 

 lanceolate, pointed, and silky beneath. 



Another species, the White Willow (S. alba) (Fig. 181), 

 is common in similar situations, and attains a height of 

 from eighty to ninety feet. It has narrow leaves, silky 

 white on both sides, and the male flowers have three 

 stamens. 



Other species and varieties with quick-growing shoots 

 and narrow leaves, besides the Osier, are coppiced, and 

 pollarding is common with the larger species. In pollarding, 

 the large branches are cut off several feet above the ground ; 

 and new branches, springing from dormant and adventitious 

 buds around the cut surfaces, form a dense crown. 



Some Willows growing on sand-dunes and moors are 

 much smaller, being only one to three feet high (Fig. 157), 

 while some alpine species are not more than one or two 

 inches high, and form a flat carpet on the ground. No 

 other genus of British trees has such a bewildering number 

 of species, varieties, and hybrids (i. e. crosses between 

 the different forms), as the Willows. 



The buds, often pressed against the stem, are covered by 

 one scale, composed of two fused leaves. The larger flower- 

 buds give rise to short shoots ending in a catkin (Fig. 185, 

 1 and 2), and the smaller leaf -buds grow into long, leafy 

 shoots. The end bud, and sometimes more, of the branch 



