CHAP. CIII. SALICA^CE^E. SA^LIX. 1457 



peared before the author's death. This volume is limited to figuring and describ- 

 ing the willows of Austria, amounting to CO sorts ; of which engravings are given 

 of both sexes, on extra-large folio plates : the specimens being of the natural 

 .size, and mostly from 1 ft. 6 in/to 2 ft. in length; exhibiting both sexes when in 

 flower, when the leaves are fully expanded, and the female catkins matured. 

 This is indeed a splendid work, and only equalled by the small portion which 

 appeared of the Hisioria Salicum of Hoffmann, before mentioned. A great 

 drawback, however, to the utility of Host's work is, that the author has given 

 new names to most of his sorts, and has identified but a very few of them 

 with the kinds described by other botanists. 



In 1829, His Grace the Duke of Bedford had printed, for private circulation, 

 the Salictum Woburncnse, in which 1GO species are figured and described; all 

 of which, with the exception of a very few, were at that time alive in the 

 salictum at Woburn. The engravings are small, but good ; the descriptions 

 are chiefly taken from Smith, but are partly original, by Mr. Forbes, the Duke 

 of Bedford's gardener. " We have in the Salictum il'obiirncnse" Sir W. J. 

 Hooker observes, " a standard set of figures of all the British, amongst many 

 exotic, species ; which, together with those of the English Botany, do, it must be 

 confessed, give to the British naturalist an advantage over all that Continental 

 authors have published on the subject ; and to them I refer in every instance, 

 and with great satisfaction. The arrangement of the species in the Salictum 

 is due to the botanical skill and knowledge of Mr. Forbes, head gardener at 

 Woburn, which His Grace has fully acknowledged; and that department does 

 him great credit." (Br. FL, \. p. 416.) 



In 1831, Sir W. J. Hooker, in the second edition of his British Flora, had, 

 with the aid of Mr. Borrer, arranged the British species in 18 groups, and 

 enumerated under these 08 species, considered by him and others as indi- 

 genous ; which, in the third edition of the British Flora, published in 1835, 

 were increased to 71. In the same year (1835), Dr. Lindley adopted the 

 system of Koch in his Synopsis of the British Flora, 2d edit., and reduced 

 the 71 species of Smith and others to 28 species. 



The willows of North America were, as far as they were known in 18 14-, 

 described by Pursh, with the assistance of Mr. G. Anderson, who had in culti- 

 vation several rare species from that country ; and some species have subse- 

 quently been added by Nuttall. Since then, Dr. Barratt of Middletown, Con- 

 necticut, has undertaken to describe all the willows grown in America, whether 

 indigenous or exotic, amounting to 100, a conspectus of which he has sent to Sir 

 W. J. Hooker, arranged in 9 groups, chiefly the same as those of Mr. Borrer. 

 Cuttings of most of these 100 sorts have been received by the Duke of Bed- 

 ford, and planted in his salictum at Woburn, where many of them are alive. 

 Some other particulars respecting them will be found in the Companion to the 

 Botanical ^Magazine, vol. i. p. 17. As Dr. Barratt's descriptions must neces- 

 sarily, in great part, be taken from dried specimens, it appears to us very 

 doubtful how far they will be of use to the European botanist; but there can 

 be no doubt as to the benefit which will result from the introduction of all 

 these sorts into British gardens, because there they may be compared in a 

 living state with the kinds we already possess. 



Lightfoot, in his Flora Scotica, paid considerable attention to willows ; but, 

 according to Sir J. E. Smith, " he laboured at the subject with hesitation and 

 mistrust, from an opinion of the species being confounded by cross-impreg- 

 nation." Lightfoot, and his contemporary Hudson, therefore, Sir James adds, 

 have hardly enumerated a fourth part of the native willows of our island. 

 The cultivation of willows, with a view to the determination of their specific 

 characters, was, according to Sir J. E. Smith, first taken up with vigour and 

 effect by James Crowe, Esq., F.L.S., of Lakenham, near Norwich, " a most 

 excellent British botanist," about the end of the last century; and Sir James 

 K. Smith, writing in 1828, says that he had laboured full 30 years in the 

 study of willows in Mr. Crowe's garden, which contained all the sorts that 

 could then be procured in anv part of Britain. (Reeis Cycf.) Mr. George 



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