50 
oldest general name is S. ruhens but which is also called S. viridis, 
S. Russelliana and S. decipiens. S. Jragilis, known in the English 
trade as the “Open Bark” Willow, also furnishes wood used for bats 
but is considered even less valuable than that of S. ruhens. 
All the so-called Cricket Bat Willows are established in the Arbore- 
tum, and it is possible, although hardly probable, that the demand for 
the wood in England or its Colonies may make the cultivation of the 
best “Close Bark” Willow a profitable agricultural operation in some 
parts of this country. It is possible, too, that some other use for the 
wood of this tree may make its cultivation as a timber tree profitable 
here. As an ornamental tree, however, this Willow deserves the atten- 
tion of American planters, for no Willow will grow more rapidly, and 
in habit it differs from the Tree Willows which are usually seen in the 
eastern states. 
In the northeastern part of North America there are only two native 
Willows, Salix nigra and S. amygdaloides, which are trees of any size, 
and the latter does not grow spontaneously in New England; and the 
great Tree Willows which make such a feature in the landscape of the 
northern and middle states are all naturalized European trees. Little 
critical study, apparently, has been given to these introduced trees 
and they have usually been considered either the White Willow (S. 
alha) and its variety coerulea or the Crack Willow {S. fragilis). The 
Crack Willow is distinguished by its coarsely serrate leaves obliquely 
long-pointed at the apex, and usually about four inches long and three- 
quarters of an inch wide. The catkins of staminate flowers of this tree 
are often forked. It is called Crack Willow because the branchlets are 
easily separated from the branches in spring. This tree is not rare in 
New England, and sixty or seventy years ago there were many large * 
specimens in the neighborhood of Boston; but it is more common in 
eastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware where it was early intro- 
duced by the Duponts to supply charcoal for their powder works. 
The White Willow (S. alba) can be distinguished from the Crack 
Willow by its shorter and narrower leaves usually from two to two 
and a half inches in length and rarely more than half an inch in 
width, and covered with whitish silky hairs which are most abundant 
on the lower surface. This, like the Crack Willow, is a large tree 
with wide-spreading branches. There is a handsome variety of the 
White Willow on which the young branches and the leaves are thickly 
covered with silvery white tomentum. This tree is sometimes found in 
American nurseries where it is usually called S. regalis, although the 
correct name for it is S. alba, var. argentea. If the real S. alba is 
among the European Willows naturalized in the United States it is 
probably rare. 
The Blue Willow, which is considered by some English botanists to 
be a variety of the White Willow and by others a species, is a taller 
and more pyramidal tree with leaves similar in size and shape to those 
of the White Willow but rather thinner, less covered with down and 
bluish gray not whitish on the lower surface. It is very doubtful if 
this tree, which is the best Close Bark Bat Willow, has been natural- 
ized in any part of the United States; and it is probable that the Willow- 
trees which are scattered along the river-banks of the northern states 
are hybrids between S. alba and S. fragilis for which the oldest gen- 
