SALIX RUSSELLIANA. BEDFORD WILLOW. 
Class XXII. DICECIA.— Order II. DIANDRIA. 
Natural Order, SALICINEHL THE WILLOW TRIBE. 
This species of Willow is a native of wet meadows, osier-holts, and hedges, throughout the midland and 
southern counties of England; flowering in April or May. It was long confounded with the S .fragilis, and 
was first made known for its valuable economical properties under the name of the Leicestershire, or Dishley 
Willow. The late Duke of Bedford brought it much into notice for its tall, handsome, rapid growth; and 
the bark was also found by Mr. Biggin, an able practical chemist, to contain more of the tannin principle 
than any other tree, except the oak. "Hence,” says Sir James Smith, "this bark, taken for S .fragilis, has 
been found useful as a substitute for Cinchona, in agues ; and if it has occasionally disappointed some 
medical practitioners, they probably chanced, in such cases, to give the real fragilis.” Tanners have some- 
times been, in like manner, deceived, and they will find it worth their while to observe the character of the 
tree, in future, before they purchase its bark. On the other hand, when the tree in question was first re- 
commended for cultivation, by the name of the Leicestershire, or Dishley Willow, it was regarded with 
scorn, as " only the Crack Willow,” a sort notoriously useless. This ignorance and prejudice are now re- 
moved. and S. Russelliana is found the most profitable for cultivation of any species of the genus, (of which 
sixty-four are indigenous to Britain,) for the value of its timber as well as bark, the rapidity of its growth , 
and the handsome aspect of the tree. A famous willow, planted by Dr. Johnson, at Lichfield, is the Rus- 
selliana; as I am assured by the Rev. Mr. Dickenson, who has mentioned it in his edition of Shaw’s His- 
tory of Staffordshire,^. 113, by the name of fragilis. 
The Bedford Willow is a tall tree, more handsome than the Salix fragilis. The branches are long, 
straight, and slender, very tough, round, flexible, and covered with a very polished bark. The leaves are 
lanceolate, very smooth, tapering at the base, not rounded, says the learned author of the " English Flora,” 
nor do they at any period approach to the broad, ovate form of the crack willow, with a stouter midrib ; they 
are strongly, and rather coarsely, serrated throughout. The footstalks are smooth, channelled, glandular, 
either along their edges, or about their summit, where they occasionally bear two or more lanceolate leaflets. 
The stipulas are half-ovate, toothed, or cut, and sometimes are altogether wanting. The female catkins are 
longer and more tapering than fragilis, and their common receptacle less downy. The calyx is oblong, 
either hairy or having a deciduous scale. The germen is lanceolate, tapering, smooth, on a smooth stalk ; 
at whose base, on the inside, is a large, abrupt, solitary nectary. The style is equal in length to the deeply 
divided stigma. The germen protrudes beyond the scale, nearly half its own length. 
Distinctive Characters.— The whole hue of Salix Russelliana is lighter and brighter than that of 
fragilis especially the leaves, which are more firm, narrower, tapering at the base ; their serratures more 
coarse and irregular, and the midrib considerably stouter. The glands on the footstalk sometimes become 
leaflets. The germen is longer and more tapering, with a longer stalk and style. In fragilis, the germen is 
ovate, and scarcely, if at all, longer than the scale. Salix Errhartiana, or the Hexandrous German Willow, 
bears a considerable affinity to the present species, but its leaves are much smaller, more elliptic-lanceolate, 
with finer, closer serratures, and the scales of the catkins shorter and rounder. This valuable species may 
be distinguished even in winter, from the fragilis, when stripped of its leaves, "by its much more handsome 
and straight mode of growth, instead of the branches decussating each other, or being set on obliquely, in 
the very unsightly manner of that tree.” 
Qualities and Chemical Properties. — The bark of this species of willow agrees in its sensible 
