THE WILLOWS. 
63 
The bark of the tree Willows has long been known to be rich 
in an alkaloid called salicine, which has tonic and astringent 
properties, and has often been used instead of qtiinine, though it is 
not nearly so powerful as the Peruvian drug. The bark is also 
used for tanning. 
The association of the Willow with sadness is very old, but 
there does not appear to be any satisfactory reason for it — 
certainly to contemplate a naturally-grown Willow that grows 
on the edge of a limpid stream, in which its graceful shoots and 
slender leaves are reflected, does not suggest sad thoughts to the 
average healthy mind. The association is chiefly with maidens 
forsaken by their false lovers, as indicated by Shakespeare when 
he makes Desdemona say — 
‘* My mother had a maid called Barbara : 
She was in love ; and he she loved proved mad, 
And did forsake her ; she had a song of ‘ Willow ’ ; 
An old thing ’twas, but it expressed her fortune. 
And she died singing it.” 
The Crack Willow or Withy (^Salix fragilis) is one of the two 
most considerable of our tree Willows. In good soil it will in 
twenty years attain nearly its full height, which is eighty or ninety 
feet. Its bole sometimes has a girth of twenty feet. Its smooth, 
polished shoots afford the best ready means of distinguishing it, for 
instead of their base pointing to the centre of the trunk as in other 
trees, they grow obliquely, so that the shoots frequently cross each 
other. They are both tough and pliant, but if struck at the base 
they readily break off. This character explains the names Crack 
Willow and fragilis. The leaves are lance-shaped, three to six 
inches long, smooth, with glandular teeth, pale or glaucous on 
the underside, and with half-heart-shaped stipules, which, how- 
ever, are soon cast off. As we have already indicated under the 
head of Poplars, the male and female catkins of the Willows are 
borne by different trees. In the case of the Crack Willow, the 
male catkins are an inch or two long, proportionately stout, each 
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