Salix.] AMENTACEJ5. 247 



and frontispiece (the tree). S. fragilis, Woodville, and other 

 medical writers. Hooker. 



Marshy woods. A cutting planted in the College Botanic Garden 

 in 1808 has now a trunk seven feet and a half in circumference, and Is 

 thirty-six feet high. FL April, May. T? . " This extremely valuable 

 tree was first brought into notice by the late Duke of Bedford, and 

 hence most appropriately honoured by bearing his name. Of the size 

 to which it reaches, some interesting details are given in the present 

 Duke of Bedford's Introduction to the Salictum Woburnense. It 

 was one of this species, and the favourite tree of Dr. Johnson at Litch- 

 field, which was very recently destroyed by a hurricane, after it had 

 attained a height of sixty feet, and a girth of thirteen feet. Another 

 tree at Gordon Castle, Scotland, at the age of sixty-one years, was 

 fifty-seven feet high, and above eleven feet in its greatest circumference. 

 Great as is the affinity, botanically speaking, between this and the pre- 

 ceding, its properties are wholly different. So important is it as a 

 plantation tree, that Mr. Lowe, in his survey of the County of Notts, 

 states, that at eight years growth, the poles yielded a net profit of 

 .214. per acre, and in two years longer they would probably have 

 produced 300 per acre, The late George Biggen, Esq. of Cosgrove 

 Priory, an able chemist, ascertained that the bark of this tree contains 

 the tanning principle in a superior degree to that of the oak ; and it is 

 supposed that medical properties stated to belong to S. fragilis, are 

 attributed to it by mistake, and should be referred to the present. The 

 leaves are of a peculiarly handsome shape, when in perfection, deeply 

 serrated, and much attenuated." Hooker. 



sjs 5. Albae. Borr. Trees of considerable elevation, having 

 lanceolate serrated leaves, with long silky hairs beneath, espe- 

 cially in a young state, which give to the foliage a light or 

 whitish hue. The serratures glandular. Catkins lax : germens 

 glabrous. 



13. S. alba, Linn. Common white Willow. Leaves ellipti- 

 cal-lanceolate, regularly glanduloso-serrate, acute, silky beneath, 

 often so above ; germens ovato-acuminate, nearly sessile, gla- 

 brous ; stigmas nearly sessile, short, recurved, bifid ; scales 

 short, pubescent at the margin. Br. FL I. p. 418. E. Fl. v. iv. 

 p. 231. E. Bat. t. 2430. Salict. Wob. p. 271. t. 136. 



/?. Under-side of the leaves less silky, often quite glabrous. 

 S. ccerulea, (blue Willow). E. Bot. t. 2431. Salict. Wob. p. 

 273. t. 137. 



River sides and woods, frequent. Fl. May. 1? . A well-known 

 tree, attaining a large size, and of very rapid growth, more particularly 

 the var. $., which is considered by many a distinct species ; and Mr. 

 Forbes, who has paid much attention to this genus, observes, that the 

 new leaves, after the wood has been cut, are of a larger size, and, as 

 well as the twigs, of a darker hue than the common var. (the real S. 

 alba). They seem to be alike valuable for their bark and timber, and 

 are both amply deserving of cultivation. A tree of the var. 3., planted 

 when a cutting, in 1808, has now a tall trunk, measuring six feet eight 

 inches in circumference at a foot from the ground, and it is nearly forty 



