320 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



throughout Europe and Asia. It seems, however, most 

 probable that the osiers have all been introduced into 

 this country from the eastern side of Europe for their special 

 utility in basket-making, &c., due to the straight, unbranching 

 growth of their stool-shoots, which materially increases their 

 flexibility and toughness, and enhances their value to such 

 an extent that osier-beds on good soil often prove one of the 

 most remunerative forms of cultivation. Much land, now 

 unproductive, is available in England for willow-coppice 

 cultivation in the unutilised soil forming the bermes on both 

 sides of the permanent way on railways. How well willow- 

 coppice will grow on such land may, for example, be seen 

 at different points on the Great Eastern Railway, a few miles 

 to the west of Colchester or to the east of Brentwood. The 

 objections to grazing or timber production on such land are 

 of course at once apparent, but not the reasons for con- 

 tinuing this waste of fairly good coppice-producing areas. 



In comparison with their wide horizontal distribution, the 

 vertical range of willows is limited. The osier tribe is confined 

 to the valleys and lower uplands, and of the tree willows it 

 is only the saugh that can accompany the beech to higher 

 elevations and occupy, if allowed to, sunny spots that are 

 too damp for the latter. In the formation or reproduction 

 of forests the tree-willows may often become a perfect 

 nuisance. When their growth is stimulated by sunshine and 

 warmth, their roots penetrate the soil in all directions, the 

 cost of sowing or planting is heightened in getting rid of 

 them, and finally the young crop is injured by the shade of 

 the quicker-growing willow shoots and suckers, which do a 

 good deal of damage by overshadowing, without bringing 

 in much by way of return or compensation. 



Tree-form and Root-system. The tree-willows are not 

 characterised by such lofty growth as the poplars, for they 

 seldom attain a height beyond eighty to a hundred feet, the 



