WILLOW. 35 



observed to me when I stated my opinion to 

 him of this timber as paving-blocks ; and I 

 may farther observe on this part of my case, 

 as "Huntingdon willow" Mr. Pontey thus 

 speaks of it {vide page 68) : — " This plant, 

 though well known as a pollard, has been very 

 little cultivated as a timber tree, which shows 

 the supineness of mankind in regard to the 

 properties of many kinds of wood. There 

 is, besides, an objection to this wiUow, that it 

 usually divides itself into a number of large 

 arms," etc. etc. And further, " I do not re- 

 member to have seen a rood of it growing 

 anywhere as timber," etc. etc. On which I 

 may observe, that the largest and finest tim- 

 ber of this willow that I ever met with were 

 growing more than fifteen years ago, at 

 Southam, in Warwickshire, in a fence at 

 the very outskirts of the town, on the Lea- 

 mington road, immediately above the ditch 

 which received the town's sewerage. There 

 were about half-a-dozen large, heavy trees. 

 On my stopping to inquire whose property 



D 2 



