SALIX. 181 



34. S. viminalis. Ci)e <©Sier. Banks of our rivers and bums; in 

 hedges, &c. quite naturalized. April, May. — " All the plants of this 

 species which we have in Scotland were originally from Holland, and 

 they are almost all females, a male Osier being very seldom, if ever, 

 to be seen." Dr. Walker, Essays, p. 421. — I have not been able to 

 discover wherefore a "willow wand " became the ensign of a merchant 

 ship. The fact is mentioned in the ballad of Sir Andrew Barton, as 

 printed in Percy's Reliques : — 



" Take in your aneyents, standards eke, 

 So close that no man may them see ; 

 And put me forth a white willowe wand. 

 As merchants use to sayle the sea." 



35. iS. smithiana. In hedges, and in thickets by burns, occasionally. 

 April. 



,524. S. ciNERKA = S. cinerea, aquatica, et oleifolia. Smith. — 

 Ci)t @rtg ^augt). — In peat bogs on all our moors, on banks in deans, 

 and in hedges. It often forms a little thicket, especially in oozy 

 ground by the sides of our muirland or dean burns ; and these are 

 favourite resorts of our summer song birds. 



525. S. AURiTA. Deans, where, with other lowly shrubs, it often 

 forms extensive brakes. It produces in profusion catkins which are 

 perfect towards the end of April and the beginning of May. The 

 males are of a rich golden-yellow, breathing a sweet perfume when 

 mature, but the young anthers are scentless and tinged with purple. 

 The female catkins are silky-grey, scarcely an inch in length. It is 

 a distorted scraggy willow, of a hoary hue, with short kneed branch- 

 lets, and without beauty ; yet I love it well, for it loves the sunny 

 far-away deans that I love ; and it has, moreover, a character, — a 

 quality in which many willows are lamentably deficient. — The queens 

 of many humble-bees frequent the male catkins. 



526. S. CAPREA=S. malifolia. Walker, Salicet. in Essays, p. 426. 

 ^augi)£i : Siaugi)4vee. — Common in wooded deans. March, April. 

 — The bark, along with that of the Oak, was formerly used by our 

 fishermen to " bark " their nets. A branch is the favourite porridge- 

 stick. The twigs loaded with bursting catkins are called ^almd, and 

 children go out annually to gather them on or before Palm-Sunday. 

 Brand's Pop. Antiq. i. p. 120. — April 4th, 1862. Almost every 

 member of the Roman Catholic church carried one or more palms on 

 their dismissal from their chapel. Some of them preserve these palms, 

 hung below the ceiling, or over the chimney-piece, until the following 

 Easter. — " The flowers of all the Willows are well known to be accept- 

 able to bees : but there is no species of more importance than this, 

 not only on account of the vast profusion of flowers it throws out, but 

 the time of their appearance. It is in full flower between the 15th 

 of March and the 8th of April. During this time, whenever the 

 thermometer is at or about 42° in the shade, accompanied with sun- 

 shine, the bees come abroad. This is a temperature which often 

 occurs ; and if bees have an opportunity, during that interval, of 



