1462 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



the plum. All the shrubby species are interesting or beautiful when planted 

 singly, and allowed to take their natural shapes; but, unless planted very thinly 

 and allowed to grow old and round-headed, they do not mass well together. 

 They are therefore well adapted for the arboretum, and for indicating water 

 or moist situations, but not tor general use in ornamental plantations. Where- 

 ever willows art- planted tor the beauty of their blossoms, the male plant should 

 be chosen ; because the colour and effect are produced chiefly by the anthers. 

 Willows in general, Gilpin observes, are trees of a straggling ramification, and 

 but ill adapted for use in artificial landscape; " except as pollards to charac- 

 terise a marshy country; or to mark, in a second distance, the winding banks 

 of a heavy, low, sunk river ; which could not otherwise be noticed." Some 

 species, he says, he has admired; and he particularises the S. alba, as having 

 a " pleasant, light, sea-green tint, which mixes agreeably with foliage of a 

 deeper hue." By far the most beautiful willow, when in flower, is S. caprea, 

 the catkins of which are not only larger than those of every other species, 

 but produced in greater abundance. Hence the great beauty of this willow 

 in early spring, and its importance as furnishing food to bees. " It is in 

 flower," says Dr. Walker, speaking with reference to the climate of Edin- 

 burgh, " 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 sunshine, the bees come abroad. This is a temperature which often 

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

 three or four days upon this willow, the hive will be preserved, when, without 

 this, it would probably perish." 



As a curious use of the willow, it is mentioned in the Nouveau Du Hamel, 

 that the roots are more readily changed into branches, and the branches into 

 roots, than in any other species of tree. All that is necessary is, to take up 

 a plant, and bury the whole of the branches in the soil, leaving the whole of 

 the roots above ground. Poiret, the writer of the article, says he saw this 

 done, in the neighbourhood of Marseilles, with a great number of plants of S. 

 alba; that the larger twisted roots became the principal branches, and pre- 

 served their general forms ; but that the young shoots produced by these took 

 the forms and appearances common to the species in its natural state. 



Poetical and legendary Allusions. The willow does not appear to have been 

 celebrated by any of the Greek poets, nor by any of the Latins, before the 

 Augustan age. Herodotus, however, speaks of the willow divining-rods of 

 the ancient Scythians ; and the use of the willow in basketwork, &c, is men- 

 tioned by many of the Latin prose writers. Martial alludes to the baskets 

 (bascaudaj) made of willow twigs by the ancient Britons. 



" Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannia : 

 Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam." 

 " From Britain's painted sons I came, 



And Basket is my barbarous name : 



But now I am so modisb grown, 



That Home would claim me for her own." 



The druids are said to have formed huge figures of wickerwork, which, on 

 great occasions, were filled with criminals, and set fire to (see Sat. Mag. y 

 vol. i. p. 74.): but these baskets, according to Burnet and others, were 

 formed of the twigs of the' oak, and not the willow. Virgil, Lucan, and 

 until v Other of the Latin poets, speak of the boats, shields, and other articles 

 formed, both by the Britons and Romans, from the twigs and branches of this 

 ti(<. 



" J'lic betiding willow into barks they twine, 



I Ik n line the work with spoils of slaughtcr'd kine." 



Bowk's Lucan, book iv. 



Oviil rives b very good description of the situation in which willows generally 



: — 



" \ hollow vale, where watery torrents K"sh, 

 , in tbfl plain , the Oflt I and the rush, 



I h< noai hv sedge and bending willow, nod 



i hi .i trailing follagi o < i thi oozy sod." A/<7., lib. vil 



