154 SALICACEJE. 



valuable for the repairing of mill wheels, forming excellent 

 wash boards. It also furnishes as good a plank for the 

 lining and bottoms of stone carts, as any other tree of 

 the Willow or Poplar kind ; and for all country uses, 

 where a tough, strong, and, at the same time, a light 

 material is required, cannot be surpassed, and we believe, 

 from its grain and colour, it would make very handsome, 

 light, and durable furniture. 



This Willow is found distributed throughout the greater 

 part of Britain, but more prevalent in some parts than 

 others. It nourishes upon the banks of rivers, canals, 

 and ditches, and seems to affect a soil rather stiff than 

 otherwise, and we have seen it attain a very consider- 

 able size upon cold, damp, clayey soils. On this account 

 we recommend it, if wanted for its timber, to be planted 

 as a hedge-row tree, and also in belts and plantations 

 in upland districts, where the soil is stiff and of moderate 

 quality, as it is likely with some of its congeners to become 

 valuable, both for the shelter and timber it affords, long 

 before the ash, elm, or any other of the slower-growing 

 trees would attain the size of ordinary poles. In its foliage 

 it bears a strong resemblance to the Sal. Russelliana, but 

 its growth is different, the ramification being more oblique 

 and the branches in consequence rather crossing each other. 

 It is also less beautiful and imposing in appearance, and 

 seldom attains so great a size. It is very subject to 

 become naked or stag-headed, by the decease of its upper- 

 most branches, though it continues to live, and throw out 

 long annual shoots for many years afterwards ; this renders 

 it unsightly, and, as an ornamental species, very inferior 

 to the Sal. Riisselliana, or the Sal. alba. The cause 

 of this canker, analogous apparently to that which attacks 

 so many of our apple and pear trees, has not been satis- 



