448 THE COMMON WILLOW. 



to it separately. The ovary is surmounted by a short style which 

 divides into two stigmas in the form of a V; these become brown 

 as the seed ripens, and then gradually curl up and fall further apart 

 to disclose a tuft of silvery down in which it is enveloped. About 

 the middle of May the ground beneath the trees is strewn with fallen 

 catkins and stipules, and with many of the leafy shoots on which 

 they hung. 



THE COMMON WILLOW (Salix fragilis, Salix alba, Salix Russelliana). 



The Crack Willow (Salix fragilis) reaches eighty leet in height, 

 the White Willow (Salix alba) and the Bedford Willow (Salix 

 Russelliana) fifty or sixty feet : all these willows are of rapid growth. 

 They appear to be natives of Britain. 



The Bedford Willow is a cross between Salix alba and Salix 

 fragilis. These varieties will not grow on as high land as the Goat 

 Willow, though in damp neighbourhoods they may occasionally be 

 found at a fairly high level. They will also grow by tidal rivers, even 

 though subjected to floods of brackish water, but will not thrive in the 

 shade or other trees. They are generally grown from cuttings, and 

 their unfailing power of reproduction in this way makes them 

 valuable in preserving the margins of rivers, since a few slips soon 

 form roots and numerous branchlets which bind the banks together, 

 and enable them to withstand the friction of the water. But it is 

 as pollards and for their long poles that these trees are chiefly useful. 

 Although they are occasionally grown in osier beds, the withies they 

 produce are less suitable than the osiers for basket-work. These three 

 species, with the Goat Willow, are the only ones sufficiently large 

 to bear timber. They are liable to injury from a host of insects. 



