324 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



the stool when the stem is cut away. On favourable situa- 

 tions this power is often long maintained, although year after 

 year the whole crop of shoots be harvested. Most of them can 

 also develop suckers, but to a much less extent than poplars, 

 and easily catch root as slips or layers, although the saugh, and 

 the purple and red osiers are often somewhat backward in 

 this latter respect. Withy-beds are generally formed by 

 planting out the osiers as slips or cuttings. 



Liability to Suffer from External Dangers. Rank growth 

 of grass and weeds, and inundations and late frosts at the 

 time w r hen the young shoots begin to develop in spring, are 

 the chief dangers to which willow-culture is exposed. The 

 parasitic dodder (Cuscuta) and various creepers are also 

 inimical to the well-being of the shoots. Otherwise 

 willows are hardy against frost and ice, and suffer little from 

 the accumulation of snow or ice on the branches, with the 

 exception of the crack willow, w r hich derives the name from 

 its tendency to break off at the joints of the twigs and 

 branches, especially in the spring. Cattle and sheep find in 

 the young leaves and shoots a succulent fodder, and often do 

 considerable damage in young coppice and osier-beds, which 

 require the protection of hurdles or fencing in the vicinity of 

 pasture-land from which beasts are likely to stray. The water- 

 rat (Aruicola amphibius) often occasions considerable damage 

 by gnawing. Hail is detrimental to the thriving of all the 

 osier species, owing to its tearing the foliage and bruising the 

 cambium of the shoots. 



Many insects find their favourite feeding ground on the 

 willow, but, with few exceptions, the damage they do is not 

 very serious. Phratora vitellinae, and species of Lina and 

 Rhynchites, both as larvae and fully developed insects, can 

 commit great havoc on the foliage, whilst the caterpillars 

 of Gastropacha neustria, G. lanestris, Orgyia antiqua and 

 Vanessa polychloros^ and Melolontha beetles are also far from 



