| mical purposes. 
WILLOW. 
tain.—The slenderer willow, S. ¢enwior, is a small 
tree, commonly about 15 or 18 feet high, bloom- 
ing in May, and inhabiting the banks of some of 
the Scottish rivers.—The rusty-leaved willow, 
S. ferruginea, is a tall shrub or small tree, com- 
monly about 12° feet high, blooming in April, 
and inhabiting the hedge-rows and hedge-banks 
of various parts of Britain—Woolgar’s willow, 
S. Woolgariana, is a tall shrub or small tree of 
about the same height and blooming about the 
same period as the preceding, and inhabiting the 
banks of some of the English rivers.—The rock 
willow, S. petrcea, is a tall shrub, commonly about 
7 or 8 feet high, blooming in April and May, 
and inhabiting rocky grounds in various parts 
of Britain.—The phillyria- leaved willow, S. phil- 
| lyrecefolia, is a curious shrub, commonly about 
5 feet high, blooming in April, and inhabiting 
some glens and valleys in the Scottish Highlands. 
—The loose-flowered willow, S. daxzflora, is a tall 
shrub or small tree, commonly about 12 feet 
high, blooming in April, and inhabiting moist 
grounds in various parts of Britain——The thin- 
leaved willow, S. tenwéfolia, is a tall shrub or 
small tree, commonly about 12 feet high, bloom- 
ing in April, and inhabiting some of the moist 
meadows of England. —The damson-leaved wil- 
low, S. damascend, 3 is a tall shrub or small tree, 
similar in height and in the period of bloom- 
| ing to the preceding, and inhabiting some of 
the uplands of Britain. — And the ambiguous 
willow, S. ambigua, is a small ornamental shrub, 
leering in April and May, inhabiting some op 
the grassy heaths of England, and comprising 
several varieties both indigenous and exotic. 
The hastate or halbert-leaved willow, Salix 
hastata, is one of the best and longest known of 
the exotic kinds for both ornamental and econo- 
It is a native of Lapland and 
Switzerland ; and was introduced to Britain from 
the former of these countries in 1780. It com- 
monly attains a height of about 15 feet; but is 
capable of becoming a middle-sized tree; and it 
also sends forth from its stools several long green 
shoots, which, though full of pith, are tough and 
serviceable to the basket-maker. Its leaves are 
nearly oval, acute, serrated, and smooth, and they 
sit close to the branches and have broad ap- 
pendages at their base; and its flowers grow in 
long yellow catkins, md come out in spring from 
the sides of the young shoots, almost their whole 
length.—An exotic species, called the serrulate 
willow, and the two indigenous species, called 
the apple-leaved and the little-tree willows, are 
regarded by some botanists as mere varieties of 
the hastate willow. 
The Babylonian willow or weeping willow of 
Babylon, Salix babylonica, is by far the most or- 
namental kind of willow known, and, in certain 
situations, possesses more true eléwande than any 
other plant whatever. It is a native of various 
oriental countries, and was introduced to Britain 
iL from the Levant in 1692; but it is sufficiently 
WILLOW-HERB. 725 
hardy to be successfully raised in any ordinary 
moist soil in a low or comparatively sheltered 
situation. It commonly attains a height of about 
30 feet, and can easily be coaxed up to the bulk 
and altitude of a pretty large tree. It adorned 
the banks of the Euphrates in the days of the 
prophet Daniel, and has been rendered venerable 
by its association with the captivity of Judah, 
and with the language of one of the inspired 
psalms; and it is the most proper of all plants 
for any decorated spot by the side of a river, 
pond, or spring, which requires a combination of 
sadness and beauty; and when hanging over a 
rock, jutting from a promontory, or reclining 
over an urn, it is both pleasingly melancholy 
and inexpressibly beautiful. Its branches are 
slender, and very long and pendulous, and hang 
streaming in the air, and very easily admit of 
being twined and woven into garlands; its leaves 
also are long and narrow; and after a fall of mist 
or of rain, drops of water hang at the ends of the 
leaves, and combine with the pendulousness of 
the branches to give the plant a singularly weep- 
ing appearance.—T'wo plants somewhat nearly — 
akin to the Babylonian willow are regarded by 
some botanists as varieties of it, and by others as 
separate species,—the one called the ring-leaved 
or curl-leaved willow, of doubtful origin, and oc- 
curring only in gardens,—and the other called 
Napoleon’s weeping willow, a somewhat tender 
evergreen, introduced in 1823 from St. Helena. 
WILLOW-HERB,—hbotanically Hpilobium. A 
genus of plants of the order Onagrarie. 
species grow wild in Britain, upwards of a dozen 
have been introduced from other countries, and 
a few more are known. One of those in Britain 
is an annual, one isa very aquatic perennial, two | 
are evergreen herbs, and the rest are perennial- 
rooted annual-stemmed herbs. One of the ever- 
greens is tender, and all the other species are | 
hardy. The leaves of all the indigens are simple, | 
and those of most toothed; and the flowers of 
most of the species are either purple, pink, or 
red,—and those of most grow in terminal leafy 
clusters or in spikes. Some of the species have 
a weedy appearance; but others are decidedly 
ornamental,—and a few are highly beautiful. 
Most thrive well in any common soil, and are 
easily propagated by radical division ; and indeed 
the best known and most common one in gar- 
dens, the narrow-leaved, is notorious for such a 
powerful habit of self-propagation by means of 
decurrent, subterranean, root-like stolons, that 
when it once gets fair possession of a few inches 
of ground, it cannot be exterminated without 
excessive care and labour. 
The narrow-leaved or rose-bay willow-herb, 
Epilobium angustifolium, is a native of meadows 
and moist shady places, chiefly in the north of 
England. It is an annual-stemmed perennial of 
commonly between 3 and 6 feet high; and usu- 
ally grows in fasicles, with a number of stems 
arising from congeries of roots or stolons. Its 
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