212 SELECT PLANTS READILY ELIGIBLE 



Salix caprea, Linne. 



Europe, North and Middle Asia. Tlie British Sallow or 

 Hedge Willow; gTOws also to a tree; wood useful for handles 

 and other implements, the shoots for hoops. It is largely em- 

 ployed for the coal for gunpowder. Bark for tanning, parti- 

 cularly glove-leather. The flowers are eagerly sought by 

 bees. It is the earliest flowering Willow. 



Salix cordata, Muehlenberg. 



One of the Osiers of North America. 



Salix daphnoides, Yillars. 



Middle Europe and Northern Asia, as far as the Amoor, 

 ascending to 15,000 feet in the Himalayas. A tree of sixty 

 feet in height, of remarkable rapidity of growth, attaining 

 twelve feet in four years. It is much chosen to fijc the 

 ground at railway embankments, on sandy ridges and slopes, 

 for which purpose its long-spreading and strong roots render 

 it particularly fit. The twigs can be used for baskets and 

 wickerwork and twig-bridges (Stewart and Brandis). The 

 foliage furnishes cattle-fodder. The tree is comparatively 

 rich in Salicine, like S. pentandra (L.) 



Salix fragilis, Linne. 



The Crack- Willow. Indigenous in South-Western Asia. 

 Height ninety feet, stem to twenty feet in girth. A variety 

 of this species is the Bedford- Willow, Salix Busselliana 

 (Smith), which yields a light elastic tough timber, more 

 tannin in its bark than oak, and more Salicine (a substitute 

 for quinine and most valuable as an anti-rheumatic remedy) 

 than most congeners. One of the dwarf American Willows, 

 perhaps S. tristis (Aiton) has been traced on the coast- 

 sands of California to send out root-like stems uj) to 120 feet 

 length. 



Salix Humboldtiana, Willdenow. 



Through a great part of South America. This Willow is of 

 pyramidal habit, attains a height of fifty feet and more. The 

 wood is much in use for yokes and other implements. Many 

 kinds of Willow can be grown for consolidating shifting sand 

 ridges. 



Salix lucida, Muehlenberg. 



One of the Osiers of North America. 



Salix nigra, Marshall. (S. Purshiana, Sprengel.) 



The Black Willow of North America. It attains a height 

 of twenty-five feet. The Black Willow is one used for 

 basket-work, although it is surpassed in excellence by some 

 other species, and is more important as a timber- Willow. 

 Mr. W. Scaling, of Basford, includes it among the sorts. 



