52. 
DIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Salix, 
SYNOPSIS OF THE SPECIES. 
(1) Leaves serrated, smooth or nearly so. 
(1. S. purpurea. Decumbent; stamen one; leaves inversely egg-spear- 
shaped, serrated, smooth; stigmas very shorty egg-shaped, nearly 
sessile. 
2. S. Helix. Erect; leaves strap-spear-shaped, smooth, serrulated; 
flowers with one stamen; style elongated, thread-shaped; summits 
strap-shaped. 
3. S. Lambertiana. Erect; stamen one ; leaves egg-spear-shaped, sharp- 
pointed ; serrated; smooth; stipula? none; stigmas very short, 
egg-shaped, notched. 
And as invariably with the tender sentiment : 
“ In love the sad forsaken wight 
The willow garland weareth.”—Drayton. 
Nor has the willow been altogether excluded from festive occasions; especially in reli¬ 
gious observances, as a substitute for palm branches: 
“And willow braunches hallow, that they palmes do use to call.”—Googe. 
Virgil in Georg, ii. thus testifies their utility : 
“ Willows to panting shepherds shade dispense. 
To bees their honey, and to corn defence.” 
Most kinds are available for the occupation of marshy ground otherwise useless; and 
for various purposes, as the manufacture of fine charcoal, clogs, ladders, trenchers, pill¬ 
boxes, cricket-bats, hop-poles, &c., and the knife-boards made of such wood have the 
property of giving an edge like a stone. The Arabs distil their celebrated febrifuge 
calitf water from the fragrant catkins ; and in Persia an esteemed perfume is obtained 
from the flowers. Of insects prevalent upon willows, about the roots may be discovered 
Phal(Ena(noctua)pulla, which ascends these trees in the evening to feed upon the leaves, 
and returns in the morning to its subterraneous retreat, remaining the whole of the day 
concealed, as Curtis imagines, to avoid the attacks of ichneumons. Ptinus tesselatus , 
called the death-watch, (from its making a sound like the clicking of a watch at regular 
intervals, superstitiously imagined to forebode the death of some person in the house 
where it is heard,) makes its rendezvous in this timber. Ptinus pertinax ravages this 
among other decaying wood, perforating it in every direction. Mr. Curtis (in Linn. Tr. 
v. 1.) informs us that Phalcena cossus feeds on the wood of several species, particularly 
of S. alba and fragilis, proving extremely destructive ; for as the larvae are generally nu¬ 
merous, in the course of a few years they destroy so much of the trunk, that the first 
violent gale of wind blows down the tree. Willows are also infested in the same way 
with the larvae of Cerambyx moschatus. The Entomologist will also find on or about wil¬ 
lows, sallows, and osiers, Lucanvs parallelipipedus, in June or July: Coccinelln guttata 
(the lady-bird), whose larvae render essential service by clearing vegetables of Aphides 
(plant-lice), on which they feed : Attelahus curculionoides: Lamia textor: Vanessa album, 
and antiopa: Smerinthus ocellatus: Andrena nigro-csnea : Noctua ridens , cubicularia, 
vpsilon, retusa, angusta, subsetacea, vebulofa, and sparsa : Balanimis maculatus ; Orcliestes 
salicis: Lvperus n/jipes: Haltica aurata: Apatura, iris: Saturnia pavoniaminor: Centra 
vinula : Nomada caprtea : Crioceris cyunella: Livi a caprew, and salicis: Cossus ligriper da : 
Notodonta palpinus, ziczac; cubicularia, upsilon, and retusa: Tortrix atromargana: 
Xiphydria camelus: Egeria crabroniformis: Arctia salicis: Chrysomela polita, sericea, and 
decem~7iotata : Curcidio nebulosus: Phaltcna pacta , citrago, salicella, pavonia , libratrix , psi, 
lanestris, vinula , bucephala, and monarcha : Papilio antiopa , and polychloros. Here may 
be noticed the minute vegetable, Cryptomyces Wauchii. Grev. Scot. Crypt. 206: “Sub- 
orbicular, olivaceous, at length nearly black, white within; thecse elongated, obtuse, 
containing numerous sporidia.” Having once attacked a branch, this apparently insig¬ 
nificant parasite quickly spreads all over it, so that Dr. Greville observes, “ I have 
no doubt that a whole plantation might, in the course of a couple of seasons, be ren¬ 
dered good for nothing.” E.) 
