264 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
(unless this would more properly be thrown among the Cor- 
date); and S. Babylénica, nigra, and Purshidna, the third. 
Sp. 9. Tse Crack Wiow. S. fragilis. L. Introduced. 
Figured in Sowerby’s English Botany, Plate 1807, and in Loudon, VII, 
Plate 205. 
Leaves ovate-lanceolate, pointed, serrated throughout, very smooth ; foot- 
stalks glandular; stipules half-heart-shaped, pointed, toothed; ovaries on a 
short stalk, oblong-ovate, smooth; style short; stigmas bifid, longer than the 
style; scale oblong, about equal to the stigmasand ovaries, pubescent, ciliated; 
male flowers with an abortive ovary.—Hovker, British Flora, Ist ed. p. 417. 
Loudon, Arboretum, 1516. 
‘‘A tall, bushy-headed tree, sometimes found from eighty to 
ninety feet in height, with the branches set on obliquely, some- 
what crossing each other, not continued in a straight line out- 
wards from the trunk, by which character 1t may readily be 
distinguished in winter.”—Sir J. £. Smith. The branches are 
round, and ‘‘so brittle at the base, in spring, that with the 
slightest blow they start from the trunk.’”’ Hence is derived 
its name, and from this fact Sir J. E. Smith infers that the 
wood cannot have the valuable properties which have been 
attributed to it, they belonging, of right, to the Bedford willow. 
If this is the only ground of his decision, it is a rash one, 
since most of the willows in this country which are remarkable 
for toughness, are also remarkable for breaking casily at the 
base of the branches, in spring, and, indeed, at other seasons. 
The long branches which form the head of this fine tree should 
have shown that they must have considerable strength to resist 
the force of the wind at such a height. And a practical man, 
Mr. Mathew, gives a very different opinion. “The red-wood 
willow, or stag’s-head osier, (S. fragilis,) produces timber su- 
perior to that of any other tree willow. It 1s much used in 
Scotland for building small vessels; and especially for fast-sail- 
ing sloops of war, by reason of its lightness, pliancy, clasticity, 
and toughness. The wood, when dry, is easily known from 
that of all other willows, by its being of a salmon color; on 
which account it is sometimes used in cabinet-making and for 
children’s toys.’”’—-Loudon, Arb., 1460. 
