THE WILLOW. 



253 



shrubberies, where its bright yellow branches are 

 very ornamental, especially in winter. 



Those which are best adapted for basket-making 

 are the Common Osier, S, viminalis, and the Three- 

 stamened Osier, S. triandra. They should be 

 planted in low, and naturally moist situations, 

 and in a deep, well-drained soil, which, to be pro- 

 ductive, should be kept well cleared of weeds. In 

 the second autumn after planting, the shoots are 

 fit to be cut, and the process is repeated every 

 year, immediately after the fall of the leaf, when 

 the wood is thoroughly ripe. If they are not 

 wanted to be used with the bark on, they are 

 tied up in bundles, and placed on end in standing 

 water until the following spring. When the buds 

 begin to shoot, the rods are ready for peeling, 

 and after this process they will keep for a very 

 long time. Of late years large quantities of 

 Osiers have been imported from Holland, in con- 

 sequence of which Willow-holts in England 

 are far less profitable than they used to be. 



Osiers are not unfrequently planted by the 

 way-side and in low meadows, as pollards, for the 

 purpose of supplying poles and stakes. The centres 

 of these trees very soon decay, and the young 

 buds send down roots into the mass of rotten 

 wood, sometimes until the cavity is nearly filled. 

 Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Oxfordshire, 

 mentions some Pollard Willows, on which seeds 

 of Ash had been accidentally lodged and germi- 

 nated, so that " the roots of the Ashes had, some 

 of them, grown down through the whole length of 

 the trunks of the Willows, and at last fastening 

 into the earth itself, so extended themselves that 

 they burst the Willows in sunder, whose sides 



