XXXIV. 
THE WILLOW. 
Wittow.—The genus Salix belongs to Diacia Diandria of 
Linneus, and it is the type of the natural order Salicacew. It 
comprehends many species and varieties, natives of all quarters 
of the world, very diversified in appearance, and ranging in 
stature from a few inches to about eighty feet in height. 
There is no genus of plants in general cultivation whose 
species are more confused than that of the willow. This is 
accounted for partly from the more prominent kinds having 
hybridized and yielded intermediate varieties without number, 
and partly from each species containing male and female 
plants, and the same species differing to some extent in 
appearance at certain seasons of the year; add to this the 
circumstance of old trees assuming a very different appearance 
from young ones, and that no tree is more apt to change its 
appearance from a change of soil and climate, and it will not 
be surprising that some confusion should exist in the genus, 
and that the more prominent species only should be readily 
recognised, 
From twenty to thirty very distinct species are natives of 
Britain, but these have been divided into a much greater 
number. 
His Grace the Duke of Bedford, in 1829, published his 
Salictum Woburnense, in which 150 species of the tree were 
figured and described. The interest of the publication was 
greatly enhanced by the circumstance, that at the time all the 
kinds existed in the Salictum at Woburn, where every oppor- 
tunity was afforded for dispersing the most esteemed varieties 
throughout the country. The kinds of British and foreign 
willows enumerated in more recent publications amount to 
