OLASS XXII. ORDER I. | SALIX. 1241 
colouring matter is said to dye cotton yarn of a brownish colour, and 
in France it is used for making a fine red colour, and in the preparing 
of leather for making gloves. The inner bark or albumen abounds in 
the autumn with granules of starchy matter, a substance only formed 
after the fruits of the plant and growth of the tree are finished for the 
season, and like the inner barks of the pine and birch it is collected 
and dried by the poor inhabitants of Norway and Kamtschatka, and 
ground into flour, and mixed with corn meal to make bread in seasons 
of scarcity. So abundant is the starchy matter in the bark of some 
trees, that it may, by being ground and triturated in water be sepa- 
rated in the same way as starch is from potatoes. The leaves and 
young green branches are given as food to cattle, and dried and kept 
in store for winter fodder. The larger branches are used as stakes, 
poles, &e., and worked into rakes, hoe handles, and various other 
implements. The wood is white, light, and soft, and is applied to 
many useful purposes, as lining to carts, barrows, &c., for which and 
many other purposes it is well adapted, on account of its bruising and 
not splitting as the harder woods would do, so that by the turner, 
millwright, and cooper, it is a wood much used for their works. It 
forms excellent charcoal for making gunpowder, crayons, &c. The 
twigs are used for basket making; the branches for crates, and split 
into thin shreds, it is woven into the foundation of silk hats, bonnets, 
&e. 
This tree is commonly planted by river sides, and in marshy dis- 
tricts as a pollard, and in such situations is one of our most rapidly 
growing trees. The best mode of planting it appears to be the 
putting of a vigorous young pole, eight feet long, two feet into the 
soil; this plan seems to succeed better than planting rooted young 
trees. ‘The starchy matter, we have already observed, abounds in the 
inner bark and wood of the Willow after the plant has finished 
growing. Mr. Heyer, in making experiments upon the growth of 
Willow branches, found that in proportion to the growth of the plant 
the starch disappeared, and he also made the very interesting observa- 
tion that such branches as were made to grow in snow water (which 
contains ammonia), produced roots three or four times longer than 
those which were made to grow in pure distilled water, and that this 
pure water remained clear, while the rain water gradually acquired a 
yellow colour. 
As an ornamental tree it is not much esteemed, though in some 
countries, where the land is low and marshy, it gives it a remarkable 
character, as well in our own country as in some parts of the Con- 
tinent, where indeed it is often planted for many miles in long 
regular lines on each side of the road, and gives a sameness by no 
means pleasing to the traveller; but on the banks of rivers meander- 
jug through a fertile country, it is by no means an unornamental 
tree, where, as Montgomery says— 
