WILLOW TREE. 



395 



yet it is in every respect a tree, notwithstanding the 

 name herbaceous, which, as it has been observed, is inap- 

 propriate. Dr. Clarke says, in his Travels in Norway, — 



" We soon recognised some of our old Lapland ac- 

 quaintances, such as Betula nana, with its minute leaves, 

 Hke silver pennies ; mountain-birch ; and the dwarf al- 

 pine species of willow : of which half a dozen trees, with 

 all their branches, leaves, flowers, and roots, might be 

 compressed within two of the pages of a lady's pocket- 

 book, without coming into contact with each other. 



" After our return to England, specimens of the Salix 

 lierhacea were given to our friends, which, when framed 

 and glazed, had the appearance of miniature drawings. 

 The author, in collecting them for his herbary, has fre- 

 quently compressed twenty of these trees between two of 

 the pages of a duodecimo volume. ' Minima,' says 

 Linnaeus, ' inter omnes arbores est hsec salix.' — ' This 

 willow is the least of all trees*.' " 



The same author observes, that in the great northern 

 forests, he found a species of willow, " that w ould make 

 a splendid ornament in our Enghsh shrubberies, owing 

 to its quick growth, and beautiful appearance. It had 

 much more the appearance of an orange than of a willow 

 tree, its large luxuriant leaves being of the most vivid 

 green colour, splendidly shining. We believed it to be 

 a variety of Salix amygdalina, but it may be a distinct 

 species : it principally flourishes in Westro Bothnia, and 

 we never saw it elsewhere 



* Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 69L 

 + Ibid. p. 254. 



