AMENTIFER®. 225 
making hoops for containing salted herrings. Dr. Walker tells us that the Dutch 
boors, without any knowledge of the sexes of plants, selected for propagation those 
willows which appeared to be of the most vigorous growth, and thus unintentionally 
propagated only the female. As all the plants originally grown in England were 
obtained from Holland, we suppose the same must be the case in a great measure 
here. 
S. viminalis is easier of culture than any other kind of willow. It will grow any- 
where in moist soil where the water is not absolutely stagnant, but it does not like 
peat or moss. Ground on the banks of rivers which can be well irrigated, and also 
well drained, is the best for the purpose. Osier plantations must be carefully hoed and 
cleaned every year. Nothing contributes more to a good crop of twigs than keeping 
the soil and the plants clean. A basket-maker finds more service from a twig 6 or 8 feet 
long than from one 3 or 4 feet long. Osiers are usually cut in the autumn, directly 
after the fall of the leaf, and tied up in bundles for immediate sale, or placed with 
their thick ends in water, where they remain till the early spring, when they are peeled 
for the finer kinds of basket-work. The operation of peeling is very simple, and is 
commonly done by infirm or old men and women at so mucha bundle. It is done 
with a little instrument which fixes into the ground, and through which the twig is 
drawn and deprived of its bark. All large baskets and hampers are made from rods 
of S. viminalis. In Germany, and also frequently in Scotland, the willows, after being 
eut and tied up in bolls, are stacked or kept in an airy shed, and when the bark is to 
be removed it is done by boiling or steaming them. Rods thus prepared are supposed 
to be more durable than others. Basket-making is a very simple operation in its 
commonest form, and used to constitute part of the knowledge of every gardener and 
country labourer ; it has, however, fallen into disuse among this class of people, and 
has become a trade of itself. 
SPECIES (?) XI—SALIX STIPULARIS. Sm. 
Pratt MCCCXXIII. 
Reich. Ic, Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. XI. Tab. DXCVIII. Fig. 1249, 
Wimm. Sal. Europ. p. 184. 
Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 1214, Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 230. 
8. viminalis-dasyclados, Wimm. Denkschr. d. s. Ges. p. 162. Wimm. Sal. Europ. 
p- 185, 
Leaves strapshaped-lanceolate or narrowly-lanceolate, acute, slightly 
undulated, and very faintly crenate-serrate, or nearly entire at the 
margins, which are revolute when young, smooth and green above, 
greyish-white with satiny hairs beneath. Stipules large, stalked, lan- 
ceolate, half-cordate. Catkins opening before the leaf-buds expand, 
subsessile, the male with small nonfoliaceous bracts at the base, 
oblong, suberect. Female catkins very long, cylindrical, thick, dense, 
suberect, with small subfoliaceous bracts at the base. Catkin-scales 
oblong-oblanceolate, pilose, brown at the apex. Stamens 2; filaments 
free, glabrous. Capsule ovate-ovoid, white-tomentose, subsessile ; 
style shorter than the stigmas; stigmas very long, linear, undivided, 
VoL. VII. GG 
