The Willow. 



of course, cut off the produce every year for the purposes of 

 wicker-work; but if the tree be of any of the other kinds, 

 the produce will befit for little else than fuel; but this pro- 

 duce is very large, and a crop is yielded of good stout fire- 

 wood about every six years; and, as Willows do little 

 harm in meadows, and perhaps, no harm at all, the edges 

 of rivers, brooks, and deep ditches, always ought to be well 

 garnished with them. 



589. There is one sort of Willow, never seen in coppices 

 or meadows ; but very well known to nurserymen and 

 gardeners under the name of the Yellow Willow, a name 

 exactly descriptive of the colour of the bark in every part of 

 the tree. It throws out a great abundance of slender twigs, 

 and these twigs, in summer as well as in winter, are as 

 tough, as pliant, and as strong for any temporary purpose 

 as any piece of common string or cord of the same thick- 

 ness. You may take one of these twigs, tie a bundle up 

 with it, and finish by making a bow, in the same manner 

 as with tape, or with packing-thread. For this reason, 

 there is no nursery, and scarcely any considerable garden, 

 without one or two trees of this kind standing in some 

 corner of the ground, for the purpose of affording a con- 

 stant supply of twigs. 



590. There remains only to speak of the Weeping Wil* 

 1.0W. It is the only Willow planted for ornament, and which 

 is, indeed, good for very little else ; but as an ornamental 

 tree it is surpassed by very few, adding to its fine colour 

 and elegant disposition of its branches, the pleasing cir- 

 cumstance of coming out in leaf amongst the very earliest 

 of the trees in spring, and retaining its leaf in the autumn 

 long after the leaves have all disappeared from the greater 

 part of deciduous trees. But, though this tree may be 



