288 DIOECIA— DIAXDRIA. Salix. 



floral ones partly inversely-egg-shaped and cui^ed back. 

 Foot-stalks somewhat glandular. Germen tapering, 

 stalked, smooth. Style longer than the cloven stigmas. 

 Branches smooth, highly polished. E. B. 1937* 



Loiv meadoivs, moist hedges, osier-grounds. Christ-church Meadow, 



Oxford. B.V. 

 Tree. May. 



" There is a large tree of this species of willow, growing by the 

 side of the ditch round Christ-church Meadow, about a stone's 

 throw from the junction of the Cherwell and Isis. I should guess, 

 from its size, that it cannot be less than fifty years old, and fifty 

 feet high. The trunk, near the ground, measures six feet ten 

 inches in girth. It has been confounded with Sa. fragilis, by some 

 botanists, but it is very distinct from that, and may readily be dis- 

 tinguished from most other willows, by its cane-coloured shining 

 twigs, as if varnished, and when not in leaf, having much more 

 the appearance of a poplar, than a willow ; whence it has been 

 called the poplar-ivillow, and sometimes the cane-willow. The 

 Rev. Dr. Walker, in his History of the Hebrides, voI.n ii. p. 267, 

 * thinks it may probably be the Sa. amarina, of Pliny. Hoffmann 

 appears to have been the first who distinguished this as a species. 

 He has described, and figured it in his Historia Sdlicum, published 

 in 1785 — 7. The tree in Christ-church Meadow must, I think, 

 have been growing there prior to that time." " ^.r. Oct. 23, 1830. 



S. f raff His. Crack W. Leaves egg-spear-shaped, 

 pointed, saw-toothed throughout, very smooth. Foot- 

 stalks glandular. Germen egg-shaped, abrupt, nearly 

 stalkless, smooth. Scales oblong, about equal to the 

 stamens and pistils. Stigmas cloven, longer than the 

 style. E. B. ISO?. 



Marshy grounds, hanks of rivers. 

 Tree. April. 



Catk. appearing with the leaves, coming forth at the base of the 

 foot-stalk, with two or three very small leaves. Branches 

 with a slight blow break off. Catk. stamen-bearing ones, cylin- 

 drical, scales inversely egg-shaped, villose (with soft hairs.) 

 Nect. of two glands, yellow, the largest between the stamens 

 and spike-stalk (rachis,) the smallest between the stamens and 

 scale. Several other smooth \\-illows are also brittle. 

 Remarkable for the crookedness of its branches, and its large, 

 broad, dark, shining leaves. 



Bees fond of the stamen-bearing flowers of this, and other 

 willows. Caterpillar of the white satin moth, (Salicis) feeds on 

 the leaves. Roots boiled for a considerable time, used by the 

 Swedes to stain eggs purple. Fl. Suec. A similar ancient prac- 

 tice, in Scotland, at Easter. See Anemone Pulsatilla. 



