146 FAMILIAR TREES 



years, with a diameter of two or three feet. In 

 addition to many fine young trees on the banks of 

 the Thames and in other parts of Britain, shghtly 

 exceeding these dimensions, one seventy years old 

 is recorded at Finborough Hall, Suffolk, as being, 

 in 1838, seventy feet high and three and a half feet 

 in diameter, with a head fifty-four feet across. 



The Weeping Willow is a member of the group 

 known as Crack Willows, from the brittleness of 

 the twigs at the joints. These belong to the 

 section of the genus known as Vitisa'lix, character- 

 ised by producing their leaves and flowers simul- 

 taneously ; by their flower-stalks bearing fully 

 developed leaves ; by their catkin-scales being of a 

 uniform generally pale, colour ; by the filaments of 

 their stamens being perfectly free from one another 

 and hairy on the lower part, while the capsules are 

 free from hairs ; and by their leaves being " con- 

 volute " — i.e. rolled together in the bud, like a scroll 

 of paper, with one free edge. Considering that we 

 have between ninety and a hundred distinct kinds of 

 Willow in this country alone, the above apparently 

 elaborate description of one of the three main 

 divisions of the genus is not mere technical refine- 

 ment. The section Vitisalix contains three series, 

 distinguished by having five, three, or two stamens 

 , respectively to each flower ; and the last of these three 

 series, to which, as has been implied, the Weeping 

 Willow belongs, contains two minor groups, the Al'hcB, 

 or White Willows, and the Frag'iles, or Crack Wil- 

 lows. The White Willows have minute stipules, 

 " ovate^lanceolate " in form, capsules almost stalkless, 



