CLASS XX1I, ORDER 1.] SALIX. 1233 
pair of small obtuse half heart-shaped stipules, which soon fall away, 
and often wanting. Catkins solitary, terminating the short lateral 
leafy branches, about two inches long, erect or drooping, its scales 
obovate, obtuse or notched, smooth, or somewhat downy, not bearded 
with long hairs, as in the last species. Stamens three, with long 
JSilaments and yellow anthers. Capsule ovate, oblong, smooth, on a 
footstalk, longer than the gland at its base. Style very short. 
Stigmas two, spreading, notched lobes. © 
Habitat.—Wet woods and osier grounds; common. 
Tree ; flowering in May and August (Lin.) 
This is one of the most commonly cultivated of the Willows as 
osiers It is cut down every year, and each spring puts up shoots 
from eight to ten feet long, tough, pliant, and very white when 
stripped of the bark, which are extensively used for basket work of all 
kinds. The cultivation of Willows, when properly managed, is one 
of good profit. The most important thing in forming an osier bed is 
the selection of suitable ground; indeed it would appear from the 
remark of Sang that there are few soils that will not grow Willows ; 
but the best place is a hollow, with a rich vegetable mould, rather 
moist, and capable of being laid dry, and occasionally soaked with 
water during the dry summer months is far the most eligible. The 
spot selected in whatever kind of soil should be deeply trenched and 
manured with stable dung, and well drained with open gutters, which, 
if water be at command, can be occasionally filled and emptied as may 
be required. Shoots of one year’s growth of the kind of Willow 
wished to be cultivated, are cut into pieces of about a foot long, and 
planted at about eighteen inches apart in rows. In the course of 
three or four years, as the stocks increase, they will be found to be 
too crowded, and it will be necessary to thin them by removing every 
alternate plant. To keep these plants in a healthy and vigorous 
state it is necessary to attend to their being kept free from weeds by 
hoeing, and also to clear out the drains two or three times a year 
from weeds and rubbish. By this means the ground is kept free 
from the intrusion of many insects injurious to the Willows, and the 
shoots are more numerous and vigorous. The time for cutting them 
is in the spring, just when they put out their buds they are in the 
best condition for peeling. 
Several varieties of this species occur in osier holts, one, the 
French Willow, of the Sussex osier grounds, which grows, according 
to Smith, from twelve to fifteen feet high, with leaves of a bright 
green, and large yellow catkins, with three or more stamens, twice as 
long as the scales, its leaves are but half the size of our triandria, 
and with more slender footstalks and larger stipules. This, the same 
author further observes, Mr. Crowe used to name S. contorta, esteem- 
ing it adoubtful species, not supposed to be wild in Britain. This, 
