1768 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



"Mar. 12, 1808. Willow tree, planted about eighteen years in a meadow at 

 Wortham, in Suffolk, in length about 22 ft., and measured, at four feet from the ground, 

 7 ft. 10 in., and in its bark appearing as green as when young. This willow is now 

 found to be the coerulean willow, and was taken down in 18 16, and cut into boards 

 which measured 22 in. broad; and increased (in the last) eight years in girth to 

 II ft. Sin." 



There are many fine trees on the Copped Hall estate, near Epping, where the 

 agent, Mr. P. W. Dashwood, informed me in 1907 that he had refused a short time 

 previously an offer of ;^ 1500 for 100 trees to be selected by the purchaser. He 

 sold one tree for £25 which was afterwards re-sold for ^4.0 to another dealer. 

 This tree had a stem 3^ ft. in diameter, and was clean of branches for about 25 ft. ; 

 it yielded eleven lengths of bats, twenty-eight inches being allowed for a bat-length. 



In 1910 I measured at Ryston, Downham, Norfolk, a true 5". coerulea which was 

 twenty years old and growing in good soil — alluvial silt over clay. It was 80 ft. high 

 by 5 ft. 4 in. in girth. A male S. alba of the same age growing beside it was 65 ft. 

 high by 3 ft. 11 in. in girth. Mr. E. R. Pratt sent me a photograph of a tree, 

 growing on the bank of the river Wissey at Hilgay, south of Downham, which, in 

 October 191 2, measured 84 ft. in height, and 6 ft. 5 in. in girth. This tree was 

 planted in 1889; and is growing very rapidly, as it was only 5 ft. 6 in. in girth in 

 February 19 10. 



Elwes saw in 1907 a fine tree growing in a meadow near Spains Hall, Braintree, 

 Essex, which was considered by Mr. A. W. Ruggles-Brise, to be a true cricket-bat 

 willow. It was quite sound and healthy, and measured 90 ft. by 12^ ft. 



The illustration (Plate 381) is reproduced from a negative for which we are 

 indebted to Mr. M. C. Duchesne. It was taken from a tree in a meadow called 

 Hartham, near Hertford, of which the grazing is annually let by the municipality. 

 The soil and situation are considered ideal for growing willow. (A. H.) 



SALIX VITELLINA, Golden Willow 



Salix vitellina, Linnaeus, Sp. PL 1016 (1753); Smith, Eng. Bot. t. 1389 (1805), and Eng. Flora, iv. 



182 (1828); Host, Salix, XX. 30, 31 (1828): Forbes, Salic. Woburn. 39, t. 20 (1829); Loudon, 



Arb. et Frut. Brit. iii. 1528 (1838). 

 Salix alba, Linnaeus, var. vitellina, Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med. iv. 506 (1812); Seringa, Ess. Sauk 



Suisse, 83 (1815) ; Andersson, in De Candolle, Frod. xvi. i, p. 21 1 (1868) ; Buchanan White, in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxvii. 371 (1890); Camus, Monog Saules, 75 (1904). 

 (?) Salix basfordiana} Scaling, Salix or Willow, Cat. p. 8 (1871), and ii. 19 (1873). 



A tree, attaining about 60 ft. in height, with spreading branches. Young 

 branchlets, pubescent at the tips and near the nodes, becoming glabrous and bright 

 yellow in winter, and in the following year. Leaves lanceolate, averaging 2\ in. 

 long and f in. wide, gradually tapering to a slender acuminate caudate apex ; shining 

 green above, bluish white beneath, with scattered appressed silky hairs, usually slight 



1 Cf. page I7S7, note i. 



