"I offered him my company to a willow-tree, either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped."—Much Ado About Nothing, Act ii. sc. i.

A certain botanist of distinction being consulted by an amateur about some variety of willow exclaimed: "Pray, don't tempt me among the willows; that way lies madness!" They are, indeed, a most complex family, consisting of no fewer than one hundred and sixty recognised species, besides those chance hybrids which, being not only wind-fertilised, but dioecious (that is, the male and female inflorescence is borne on separate trees), they are so prone to produce. Bentham and Hooker admitted fifteen species as indigenous to the United Kingdom, ranging from Salix herbacea, dwarfest of British shrubs, humbly crouching on bleak mountain crests and seldom rearing its fairy branchlets to a greater height than a couple of inches, to the massive white willow (S. alba), which may tower to the height of nearly 100 feet.

British foresters have not hitherto turned the capabilities of the better kinds of willow to such account as might be done, for, except in the osier industry and for the manufacture of cricket bats, willows are scarcely ever cultivated for profit. When they are planted at all they are generally shoved into some piece of sour, swampy ground, fit for nothing else; and the fact that they will actually flourish in such places is taken as evidence that they prefer them. But the better willows appreciate a kindly soil as much as any other tree, and it is only on wholesome, but moist, land that they develop their proper qualities.

By far the most valuable willow in the present condition of the timber market is the blue willow, which some botanists distinguish as a species under the name of Salix coerulea, but which is more generally deemed to be a hybrid between the white willow (S. alba) and the crack willow (S. fragilis). It is easily distinguished from both its reputed ancestors; first, by its habit, which is far more erect than that of the others, all the branches ascending without any tendency to spread or droop; second, by its leaves, which are not nearly so downy as those of the white willow, and of thinner texture, so that, when one is held up against the light the tertiary venation may be seen through a lens to be translucent; and, third, by the bark, which is quite different from the rugged covering of the crack willow, and much smoother than that of the white willow. The fissures or seams in the bark are straight and set close together, enabling one to distinguish the blue willow from all other kinds at all seasons. The general tone of the foliage is silvery blue, instead of the silvery grey of the white willow.

The peculiar value of this willow consists in its producing the only wood suitable for first-class cricket bats. Golf has threatened, but has not yet undermined, the supremacy of cricket; and so long as the English national game holds its own, so long will good samples of the blue willow command a high price. It was in the eastern counties of England that this tree originated, and it is thence that dealers continue exclusively to draw their supplies, being willing to pay what might be thought extravagant prices for the right article. Thus, Elwes records how, in January, 1912, eleven willows were sold in Hertfordshire at fourteen years of age for £81, or about 13s. per cubic foot. These trees had made amazingly rapid growth, ranging from 50 to 60 feet high; but the quality of the wood does not seem to deteriorate with age and bulk, for in 1888 a blue willow, fifty-three years old, was sold at Boreham, in Essex, and manufactured into 1179 cricket bats. This tree measured 101 feet high, with a girth of 16 feet 3 inches. From the same estate another blue willow was sold in 1911 for £70. The dimensions have not been recorded, but the purchaser estimated the price of the serviceable wood at about £1 per cubic foot. Even more remarkable seems the experience communicated by Mr. J. Barker of Pishiobury, Sawbridgeworth, to the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1906. He states that a parcel of land was bought for £50 in 1889 and planted with willows, which were sold in 1905 for £2,000.

Such results as these have no parallel in British forestry; and it may be deemed strange that more attention has not been given to the cultivation of the blue willow. Even in Herts and Essex few of those who grow it for the market are at pains to clear the stems of branches to a greater height than 12 or 15 feet. There appears to be nothing exclusively in the dry climate of East Anglia essential to the development of good "bat" qualities; for Mr. J. A. Campbell of Ardluaine (to whom I owe thanks for some sets of this willow) has received a most favourable report on the wood of trees grown by him in the humid atmosphere of Lochgilphead. In short, the blue willow is as tolerant of conditions of soil and climate as any other native willow, and could probably be grown at a profit in any county of the United Kingdom where shelter from violent winds can be had; but, of course, extended sources of supply would naturally cause a fall in the present exorbitant prices.

The approved method of propagating the blue willow is by large "sets" from 10 to 20 feet long, cut from the branches of trees that have been felled. These have to be sharpened at the butt and firmly set in holes 3 feet deep, formed by driving in and removing a stake. Like the poplar, the willow imperatively demands light, and to obtain a fine quality of timber, the growth must be rapid. Being so impatient of shade, these trees must not be subjected to planting in close canopy, as recommended for coniferous and other trees. The "sets," therefore, should be planted fully 30 feet apart; and to secure a clean hole, side buds must be rubbed off the saplings, and careful pruning applied in later years.

It must not be supposed that the supply of cricket bats exhausts the purposes to which the wood of the blue willow may be applied. This variety should be planted in preference to any other, because it exceeds all others in rapidity of growth, and produces timber of fine quality faster than any other tree that can be grown in the British Isles. But the white willow (S. alba), more commonly known as the Huntingdon willow, also yields a rapid return of light, tough wood, very durable, and suitable for flooring, couples, cart and waggon bodies. Dr. Henry measured two Huntingdon willows near Palnure, Kirkcudbright, in 1904, and found them respectively 86 feet high by 10 feet 8 inches in girth, and 82 feet by 12 feet 9 inches. But the largest willow of this species now growing in Scotland is probably one at Coodham, near Kilmarnock, which girthed 17 feet 1 inch in 1904.

Leaving aside the kinds of willow cultivated for osiers (a most profitable industry), the only other native species worthy of consideration as a timber tree is the crack willow (S. fragilis); so called because of the fragility of the branchlets in spring. A remarkably vigorous variety of the species, popularly known as the Bedford willow, and scientifically as S. Russelliana, appears to have originated about the year 1800, probably as a hybrid. A large specimen growing in Messrs. Samson's nursery at Kilmarnock was blown down in 1911. It was 80 feet high and 16 feet in girth.

Both the crack willow and the Bedford willow may be easily distinguished from the white or Huntingdon willow by their rugged bark, seamed with broad and deep grooves, and by their foliage, which is green and shining, each leaf ending in a long point bent to one side. The timber is inferior in quality to that of the white and blue willows; nevertheless, it is recorded in Lowe's Agricultural Survey of Notts (p. 118) that a plantation of Bedford willows "yielded at eight years' growth poles which realised a net profit of £214 per acre." It is not unlikely, considering the confusion which prevails among species and varieties, that these were blue, not Bedford, willows.

The lugubrious associations with which poets have invested the willow probably may be traced to the English translation of Psalm cxxxvii. 2; but, as noted on page 81, no willow grows on the banks of the Euphrates, and it was a species of poplar whereon the captive Jews hung their harps. LinnÆus may be excused, in consideration of the difficulties of travel in the eighteenth century, for having named the weeping willow Salix babylonica, though that species is only to be found wild in China; but it is an instance of the mischievous practice of one writer copying the statements of another that in Kirkby's Trees we read that the weeping willow "grows abundantly on the banks of the Euphrates and other parts of Asia, as in Palestine, and also in North Africa."

The name "willow" speaks to us of a time when our Anglo-Saxon forbears dwelt in wattled houses. They spoke of the tree as welig and also as widig (whence our "withy"), the root-meaning being pliancy. Another old English name for the tree was "sallow," which in the north has been shortened into "saugh," a term associated with one of the darkest episodes in the somewhat murky annals of the Stuart dynasty; for it was at Sauchieburn near Stirling that James, Duke of Rothesay, aged fifteen years, was brought by the rebel lords to do battle with his father James III. on 11th June, 1488. King James, flying from the field, was done to death; and, in contrition, his son wore an iron chain round his waist till he, too, fell as James IV. at Flodden, twenty-five years later.

The Gaelic for willow is saileach, whence innumerable place-names in Scotland and Ireland, such as Barnsallie, Barsalloch, Sallachy, Lisnasillagh, etc.