AMENTIFERZ, 203 
Bay-leaved Willow. 
French, Saule & cing étamines. German, Fiinfminnige Weide. 
The varieties of willow are so numerous in this country, and the species are so 
much alike in general utility and appearance, that it is difficult to distinguish between 
them, and we therefore design to say something of the history of the genus, and 
specially to notice the particular uses of any species as it follows in order. The 
ancients wrote of willows, and Pliny recognised the willow as among the most useful 
of aquatic trees, furnishing props for vines, and the bark being used for tying up 
the shoots, and the young branches for basket-making. 
The enormous number of species described by botanists in recent times is most 
confusing. In 1829 the Duke of Bedford had printed for private circulation the 
Salictum Woburnense, in which 160 species are figured and described, for the most 
part all then alive in the salictum at Woburn. Lightfoot, in his “ Flora Scotica,” 
paid great 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 con- 
founded by cross-impregnation.”’ 
In an economical point of view, but little was added to our knowledge of the culture 
and uses of the willow, since the time of the Romans, till the slight notices of the 
uses of willows by Ray, and afterwards by Evelyn. Willows for basket-making and 
hoops were chiefly imported from the Continent till the commencement of the present 
century, when our exclusion from that locality by war led to the formation of plan- 
tations at home. 
The principal plantations of willows for basket-making in every country are made 
along the banks of rivers and streams, and in England those on the Thames and the 
Cam are the most celebrated. In both these rivers and in some others small islands 
are frequently planted entirely with willows, and are called osier holts. There are 
many such islands in the Thames between London and Reading. The willow is 
frequently cultivated as a pollard, the lop being valuable for fence wood, poles, hurdles, 
and fuel. In the time of Cato a crop of willows was considered so valuable that he 
ranks the salictum as next in value to the vineyard and the garden. In a state of 
nature, the willow furnishes food by its leaves to the larvee of moths, gnats, and other 
insects, and by its flowers to bees. Its wood also is preferred to most others by the 
beaver. The leaves and young shoots are considered good food for cattle, and in 
some countries are dried and stacked for the purpose. In a rude state of civilisation 
the twigs of the willow were used in constructing houses, household utensils, panniers, 
the harness of horses and cattle, and various other purposes connected with boating 
and fishing. Dr. Walker relates that he has ridden in the Hebrides with a bridle 
made of twisted willow twigs, and lain all night at anchor with a cable made of 
the same material. 
The present species is one of the latest flowering willows, the flower seldom ex- 
panding till the beginning of June. The flowers are remarkably fragrant, as are the 
leaves, especially when bruised. The fragrance, which is similar to that of the sweet 
bay, Lawrus nobilis, only less powerful, is exuded from the resinous notches of the 
leases, and from the barren catkins. It is one of the most desirable species for 
planting in pleasure-grounds, and is the handsomest of the shrubby English willows, 
the large and abundant yellow catkins contrasting most agreeably with the copious 
and shining foliage, which has the look of some fine evergreen rather than that of a 
piant that aunually sheds its leaves. It grows well from cuttings, and will make 
Dp 2 
