312 THE WILLOW. 
willows. Like almost all the willows it is propagated by 
cuttings; strong one-year shoots, formed fourteen to sixteen 
inches long, and sunk ten or twelve inches in prepared ground, 
are often attended with as much success as rooted plants ; but 
where the ground is not of the best description and well pre- 
pared, rooted plants should be used. 
8. alba, the White or Huntingdon Willow, is a well-known 
tree, and in favourable soil and situations it frequently ranges 
from fifty to eighty feet in height, with a trunk two or three 
feet in diameter. If we except the grey poplar, P. canescens, 
perhaps there is no other tree, native or foreign, which, in this 
country, attains to so great size during the first twenty or 
thirty years of its growth. About that age it generally, in 
favourable situations, reaches the height of from sixty to 
seventy feet, when its trunk often yields one cubical foot for 
every year of its growth. It is more frequently planted as 
a timber tree than any other willow. It is a good coppice 
willow, and often grown as a pollard tree. Its year-old shoots 
are remarkably strong and tough, but being twiggy, or full 
of laterals, it is rendered unsuitable for the finer purposes of 
basket-making. At Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, this 
tree is recorded to have attained the height of seventy feet, 
with a trunk four feet and a half in diameter. 
S. Russelliana, Russell’s, or the Bedford Willow, is one of 
the best tree-willows in cultivation. It was brought into 
notice about sixty years ago by His Grace Francis Duke of 
Bedford, and ever since it has been honoured by the family 
name. Johnson’s willow, at Lichfield, is of this species ; its 
height is recorded to be forty-nine fect, with a trunk twelve 
feet in circumference. One of the best English specimens of 
this tree stands at Sion, eighty-nine feet high, with a trunk 
upwards of four feet in diameter. In Banffshire, the banks of 
the Deveron, at Duff House, are embellished with some fine 
specimens of this tree, upwards of fifty feet high, with trunks 
from eight to nine feet in circumference. 
The bark and leaves of all the willows are astringent, and 
the bark of most sorts is used for tanning leather. 
