chap. cm. salica'ce.i: sa'lix. 1457 



appeared before the author's death. This volume is limited to figuring and 

 describing the willows of Austria, amounting to 60 sorts; of which engravings 

 are given of both sexes, on extra-large folio plates: the specimens being of the 

 natural size, and mostly from 1ft. Gin. to 2ft. in length; exhibiting both 

 sexes when in flower, when the leaves arc fully expanded, and the female cat- 

 kins matured. This is indeed a splendid work, and only equalled by the small 

 portion which appeared of the H'istoria Salicum of Hoffmann, before men- 

 tioned. A great drawback, however, to the utility of Host's work is, that 

 the author has given new names to most of his sorts, and has identified but a 

 very few of them with the kinds described by other botanists. 



In 1829, His Grace the Duke of Bedford had printed, for private circula- 

 tion, the Salictum Woburneme, in which 16-0 species are figured and described ; 

 all of which, with the exception of a very few, were at that time alive in the 

 salictum at Woburn. The engravings are small, but good ; the descriptions 

 are chiefly taken from Smith, but are partly original, by Mr. Forbes, the Duke 

 of Bedford's gardener. " We have in the Salictum Wobumensc" Sir W. J. 

 Hooker observes, " a standard set of figures of all the British, amongst many 

 exotic, species ; which, together with those of the English Botany, do, it must 

 be confessed, give to the British naturalist an advantage over all that Con- 

 tinental authors have published on the subject ; and to them I refer in every 

 instance, and with great satisfaction. The arrangement of the species in the 

 Salictum is due to the botanical skill and knowledge of Mr. Forbes, head 

 gardener at Woburn, which His Grace has fully acknowledged ; and that 

 department does him great credit." {Br. Fl. y i. p. 416.) 



In 1831, Sir W. J. Hooker, in the second edition of his British Flora, had, 

 with the aid of Mr. Borrer, arranged the British species in 18 groups, and 

 enumerated under these 68 species, considered by him and others as indi- 

 genous; which, in the third edition of the British Ffo?*a, published in 1835, 

 were increased to 71. In the same year (1835), Dr. Lindley adopted the 

 system of Koch in his Synopsis of the British Flora, 2d edit., and reduced 

 the 71 species of Smith and others to 28 species. 



The willows of North America were, as far as they were known in 1814, 

 described by Pursh, with the assistance of Mr. G. Anderson, who had in cul- 

 tivation several rare species from that country ; and some species have subse- 

 quently been added by Nuttall. Since then, Dr. Barratt of Middletown, 

 Connecticut, has undertaken to describe all the willows grown in America, 

 whether indigenous or exotic, amounting to 100, a conspectus of which he 

 has sent to Sir W. J. Hooker, arranged in 9 groups, chiefly the same as those 

 of Mr. Borrer. Cuttings of most of these 100 sorts have been received by the 

 Duke of Bedford, and planted in his salictum at Woburn, where many of them 

 are alive. Some other particulars respecting them will be found in the Com- 

 panion to the Botanical Magazine, vol. i. p. 17. As Dr. Barratt's descriptions 

 must necessarily, in great part, be taken from dried specimens, it appears to 

 us very doubtful how far they will be of use to the European botanist ; but 

 there can be no doubt as to the benefit which will result from the introduc- 

 tion of all these sorts into British gardens, because there they may be com- 

 pared in a living state with the kinds we already possess. 



Lightfoot, in his Flora Scofica, paid considerable attention to willows ; but, 

 according to Sir J. E. Smith, " he laboured at the subject with hesitation and 

 mistrust, from an opinion of the species being confounded by cross-impreg- 

 nation." Lightfoot, and his contemporary Hudson, therefore, Sir James adds, 

 have hardly enumerated a fourth part of the native willows of our island. 

 The cultivation of willows, with a view to the determination of their specific 

 characters, was, according to Sir J. E. Smith, first taken up with vigour and 

 effect by James Crowe, Esq., F. L.S., of Lakenham, near Norwich, " a most 

 excellent British botanist," about the end of the last century ; and Sir James 

 E. Smith, writing in 1828, says that he had laboured full 30 years in the 

 study of willows in Mr. Crowe's garden, which contained all the sorts that 

 could then be procured in any part of Britain. (Rccs\s Cycl.) Mr. George 



5 c 2 



