OF FOREST-TREES.

249

the Long-leaved Yellow Sallow , the Creeper, the Black low Willow, the chap. xx.Willow-bay, and the Ozier. I begin with the Withy.

2. The withy is a reasonably large tree, (for some have been found withy.

serrated, and waved on their edges. The flowers are long catkins, which come out early inthe spring from the sides of the branches, and they soon afford a large quantity of down.

15. SALIX (hast at a ) foliis serratis glabris subovatis aculis sefsilibus, slipulis subcordatis.Lin. Sp. PI. 1443. The hastated willow ,

This is a middle-sized tree, sending out several long green shoots from the stools, which arevery full of pith, but neverthelefs tough and useful for the basket-maker. The leaves arenearly oval, acute, smooth, serrated, sit close to the branches, and have very broad appendicesto their cases. The flowers are an oblong yellow catkin, and come out in the spring from thesides of the young shoots. - '

The willow belongs to the clafs and order Dioecia Diandria , having male and femaleflowers on separate plants, and whose male-flowers have two stamina. The flowers of thatspecies called the Sallow make their appearance about the eleventh of March, and theleaves are out by the Seventh of April. The leaves of the 'Weeping 'Willow appear aboutthe first of that month; and the buds of the White Willow swell about the tenth. By the* eighteenth, the leaves are quite out, and the flowers fullblown. The catkins of the Sallow

are formed about the fifth of October,

The Willow, Sallow , and Ozier, from the quicknefs of their growth, naturally claim theattention of such Gentlemen as have lands suitable to their cultivation; and indeed theimmediate profit that they yield makes them a desirable object of attention. In order toraise a bed of Oziers the ground should be dug over, or ploughed ; but where expence isnot a consideration, the preference should be given to the spade. The cuttings must thenbe procured; and although they should consist chiefly of the true Ozier kinds, yet othersorts must be introduced into the Ozier bed, to make it complete, and more useful to thebasket-maker, who will want the different sorts for tire different purposes of his trade.Besides the true Ozier, of which the plantation is chiefly to consist, there must be theSallow, the long-shooting Green Willow, the Crane Willow, the Golden Willow , thethe Silver Willow, the Welsh Wicker, &c.; by which names they are best known.

The cuttings should be of two years wood, though the bottom parts of the strongestone-year shoots may do. They ought to be two feet and a half long, a foot and a half ofwhich should be thrust into the ground, and the other foot should remain for the stool.These cuttings should be put in at two feet two inches distance each way; and all the sum-mer following the weeds must be kept under; the summer after that, the tallest of theweeds should be hacked down. The Willows must continue growing for three years,when .they should be all cut down to the first-planted head. They will sell well to thehurdle-maker; and there will be a regular quantity of proper stools left, to exhibit an an-nual crop of twigs, which will be worth five or six pounds, or more, per acre, to be sold tothe basket-maker. But the price of the twigs is greater or lefs, in proportion to the nature

Volume I. . Q °1