Part 7

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.

The Hornbeam

The hornbeam (_Carpinus betulus_) belongs to the birch family and the beech belongs to the oak family, so they are far from being nearly akin; nevertheless, the hornbeam and the beech have certain qualities singularly similar in the two species.

First, the hornbeam imitates the foliage of the beech so closely that when either of them is dressed as a hedge plant (a purpose for which both are peculiarly suitable) it requires close inspection to determine which tree it is. Second, except the elder, the beech and the hornbeam are the only shade-bearers among our indigenous deciduous hardwoods--that is, the only broad-leaved trees--that will flourish under the shade and drip of other forest growths, thereby proving most useful for under-planting. Third, as firewood there is none equal to either beech or hornbeam, both of them excelling all other woods in the amount of heat they discharge in combustion.

With these three particulars the resemblance between these two trees ceases, for whereas the beech, under favourable conditions, soars aloft to a stature of 130 or 140 feet, the hornbeam seldom exceeds half that height. Moreover, while the beech is distinguished among all our forest growths by its smoothly cylindrical trunk, the stem of the hornbeam is always fluted and ridged, often very deeply.

Of the eighteen species of _Carpinus_ known to botanists, only one, the common hornbeam, is indigenous in the British Isles, and there only in the southern parts of England, Oxford and Norfolk being about its northern limit, corresponding roughly with that of the nightingale. But whereas the nightingale cannot be seduced into sojourn beyond its hereditary bounds, the hornbeam flourishes freely when planted in any part of the United Kingdom suitable for tree growth. On the Continent it has a very wide range, extending through Central and Northern Europe into Asia Minor, but it has not been found wild in Spain, Portugal, or Sicily.

As a timber producer its chief value in this country has almost gone since the substitution of coal for wood as fuel became general. In former times the trees were grown as pollards, and regularly cut for firewood, evidence of that industry being still to be seen in the condition of the hornbeams in Epping Forest and other places in Kent, Herts, and Essex. The timber, says Elwes, "is the hardest, heaviest, and toughest of our native woods"; but it is useless for outdoor work, being as perishable as beech when exposed to weather. It still competes with foreign woods in the piano maker's trade, its firm texture, resembling that of ivory or horn, rendering it excellent for fine action work. But as the slow growth of the tree and the imports of foreign woods are prohibitive of any prospect of profit to the British planter, the only service to which the hornbeam can be usefully put in this country is the production of firewood and the formation of hedges.

Nor can the hornbeam claim high rank as an ornamental tree, though fine specimens may be seen in many English and a few Scottish parks. Elwes mentions Cobham Park, Kent, as containing hundreds of hornbeams from 70 to 80 feet high, and quotes Sir Hugh Beevor as authority for one 100 feet high and 9 feet 8 inches in girth at High Wycombe, Bucks. I have never seen a hornbeam of that size; the largest with which I have made personal acquaintance being one at Gordon Castle, which Loudon described as being 54 feet high in 1837. Sixty-seven years later it had added only 14 feet to its stature, Elwes having found it to be 68 feet high in 1904, with a girth of 8 feet.

The Alder

Of the three species of alder indigenous to Europe, namely _Alnus incana_, _A. cordata_ and _A. glutinosa_, only the last named succeeded in establishing itself in the British Isles after the retreat of the ice-field; though the other two grow readily enough when planted in this country.

"Alnus, the alder," wrote John Evelyn, "is of all other the most faithful lover of waterie and boggie places, and those most despis'd weeping parts or water-galls of forests." It has never been a popular tree, either with foresters, poets, or landscape gardeners, yet it has the merit of clothing ground which will not satisfy the wants of any other lofty growth, thriving in swamps too sour even for the willow. "Where do you put your brown tree?" is said to have been asked by one artist of the Georgian era of another; and the rounded outline and sombre foliage of a mature alder must have served many of the old school of landscape painters in their conventional compositions.

The alder neither contributes tender verdure to the gaiety of spring nor brilliant tints to the splendour of autumn; dull rifle green is the livery donned in April, remaining unchanged till the frosts of late October. Nor does this melancholy tree gladden the waterside with any brightness of blossom; the male and female catkins, appearing before the leaves, are dull, brownish yellow; beautiful objects under a lens, but contributing little to cheer the wayfarer, save as being sure harbingers of summer days. These flowers are followed by cones, which are green at first, but, turning black when ripe, only serve to deepen the gloom. Nevertheless, an alder copse in February and early March has a quiet beauty all its own. The smooth twigs are glazed with a waxy secretion and the swelling buds are plum-coloured, which the level sun-rays light up into a charming purplish bloom. Many a time when in pursuit of spring salmon I have enjoyed the sight of a bevy of old blackcocks busy among the branches of the alders, whereof the buds and catkins provide them with provender during the hungriest months of the year.

There are about five-and-twenty known species of alder, all bearing a considerable family likeness, and none exceeding in stature our only native species, _Alnus glutinosa_. Of this, many specimens might be mentioned between 70 and 90 feet high, though it is often difficult or impossible to obtain right measurement owing to the trees growing beside rivers or lakes. The most remarkable alder wood known to me is at Kilmacurragh, in County Wicklow. In the old spacious days the ground it occupies was a deer park. The trees are ancient, but not very lofty, from 50 to 60 feet high; but many of them have clean boles up to 30 or 40 feet and girth from 8 to 10 feet. One of them had a girth of 11 feet 4 inches in 1906. In the swampier parts of the wood, some of the trees have got bowed; their trunks present a curious appearance from being densely covered with pennyroyal (_Cotyledon umbilicus_). There can be little doubt that this grove is a fragment of the primæval Irish forest.

There are some very fine alders beside the Gade in Cassiobury Park, Herts, one of which Dr. Henry made out to be 85 feet high, with a girth of 11 feet 6 inches; but these dimensions were exceeded by an alder 90 feet high with a girth of 11 feet 4 inches at Betchworth Park, Surrey, and by one at Enville Park, Stourbridge, 87 feet high, with a girth of 8 feet 2 inches.

In Scotland the tallest measured by him was at Scone--66 feet high by 6 feet 3 inches in girth; but no doubt there are bigger alders than that north of the Tweed, though it might not be possible to match a shapely tree measured in 1904 at Churchill, Co. Armagh, which stood 94 feet high, girthing 6 feet 4 inches, and having a clean bole of 60 feet.

The aforesaid tree at Scone is of the cut-leaved variety, a sport which, originating in France, and being planted in De la Berlière's garden near Saint-Germain, says Loudon, became the parent of all that are now to be found. It is certainly more ornamental than the common form, the leaves being divided half-way to the midrib into three to six segments on each side.

The alder is not rated high among us as a timber tree, though good boles are sometimes in request, for what precise purpose I cannot tell. Mr. Elwes states that he sold three hundred alders standing for £100, which he reckoned to be at the rate of 4d. or 5d. a cubic foot. This must be considered an excellent return from land that was fit for no other crop. Clogmakers take alder of suitable size as readily as birch, giving as much as £40 an acre for coppice, which will be fit for cutting again in twenty years. One of the most picturesque scenes in forestry is a summer encampment of clog-cutters.

In Scotland probably the demand for alder for making herring barrels would be steady and inexhaustible, were there any regularity in the supply; but in this, as in other British forest products, so much uncertainty is caused by the haphazard and capricious felling practised by landowners in general, that the trade derives its supplies of staves from abroad. For outdoor purposes, the timber is far too perishable under vicissitudes of wet and dry; but for piles under water it is most durable. Evelyn states, without quoting his authority, that the Rialto at Venice is founded upon alder piles. For three hundred years charcoal made from alder was more highly esteemed than that from any other wood for making gunpowder; but modern explosives have caused it to be in less request nowadays.

There may be some trout-fishers who have not learnt that an effective way of taking the objectionable glitter from a gut cast is to draw it two or three times through an alder leaf. Evelyn says that such leaves afford great relief to footsore travellers if laid within the stocking.

In his _Sylva Florifera_ (1823), Henry Phillips admits us to a glimpse into the domestic economy of our great-grandmothers, who had to contend with certain difficulties from which modern households are happily exempt. "The good housewife," he says, "is not unacquainted with a property in the leaves [of alder], with which she strews her chambers before sweeping, for, when fresh, they are covered with a glutinous liquor that entangles fleas like birds in birdlime."

The English name "alder" has been disguised by the addition of the _d_. It was _alr_ in Anglo-Saxon, _r_ taking the place of the Latin _n_ in _alnus_, which is preserved in the French _aune_. In one form or another it exists in all Teutonic dialects; we, in Scotland, retain very closely the Anglo-Saxon sound when we speak of "eller," though we have allowed the intrusive _d_ to slip into Elderslie, the paternal home of William Wallace. This tree has given rise to countless place-names; in England--Alresford on the Itchen, Allerton (eight or nine times), Allerdale, Ellerbeck, Ellerburn, Ellerton, and so on; in Scotland--Allershaw in Lanarkshire, Allerton in Cromarty, Allers near Glasgow, Allerbeck in Dumfriesshire, Ellerrigs, Argyllshire; Ellerslie, in several counties, etc. I incline to think that the frequent and puzzling name Elrig or Eldrig may be associated with alders.

In Gaelic the alder is called _fearn_, which appears in a multitude of place-names, such as Balfern, Glenfarne, Farnoch, Fearn, Fernie, and Fernaig. The consonant _f_ being liable in Gaelic to be silenced by aspiration, the descriptive name _amhuinn-fhearn_, alder river, has been worn down into Nairn, and probably some, at least, of the numerous streams called Earn or Erne derive their titles from a similar contraction.

Among the exotic species of alder I only know of one worth attention for ornamental purposes, to wit, the heart-leaved alder (_A. cordata_); which, being found indigenous only in Corsica and Southern Italy, might scarcely be expected to take kindly to our humid climate. It does so, however, growing as vigorously as our native alder, and proving somewhat more decorative. The leaves are of a shining, dark green with lighter undersides, and the cones are at least an inch long, carried erect.

The grey alder (_A. incana_) has nothing to recommend it; except, perhaps, to Norwegian anglers, who know how the fieldfares nest among its thickets in garrulous colonies. It is not easy to understand how the British Isles have missed having this species as a native, for it is very widely distributed over Europe from the shores of the Arctic Ocean on the north to Servia and the Apennines on the south. It is also spread widely over the northern United States and Canada.

The Tulip Tree

The tulip tree (_Liriodendron tulipifera_) is descended from an extremely remote ancestry, and remains one of the stateliest denizens of the North American river valleys, ranging from 150 to 190 feet high. The form of its leaves is unique among those of forest trees, being lyrate, ending in two pointed or rounded lobes considerably longer than the midrib. Ruskin declared it to be the only leaf which did not display one form or other of a Gothic arch--round or pointed. These leaves turn a beautiful clear yellow in autumn, and in summer the flowers, in size and shape like those of a tulip, attract numbers of bees. If only they were a little more gaily painted, the tulip tree would be among the showiest of park trees; but the petals are of a dull greenish white, with a splash of orange at the base of the interior of each, where one can't see it--unless one happens to be a bee.

However, its flowers apart, a well-grown tulip tree is a beautiful object at all seasons, owing, in winter, to the tracery of its smooth, grey branches--in summer, to its rich, bright green foliage, and in autumn to the splendour of its decay.

It was probably brought to England in the reign of Henry VIII. or Elizabeth by one of those botanists--Tradescant or another--who quietly pursued their useful labours while Christians were hurrying each other to the stake, and politicians were chopping off the heads of inconvenient opponents.

In lofty towers let Pallas take her rest, Whilst shady groves of all things please us best.

In the following century Evelyn said "the tulip tree grows very well with the curious amongst us to a considerable stature. I wish we had more of them." Given deep, generous soil and suitable shelter, this fine tree might develop in England proportions equal to those it attains in its native forests, where, says Elwes, it reaches "a height of 160 to 190 feet, with a straight trunk 8 to 10 feet in diameter, clear of branches for 80 to 100 feet from the ground." But its requirements in soil and shelter are imperative; it is a greedy feeder, and its branches are too friable to stand violent winds. Meet conditions have been secured at Woolbeding, already mentioned as the site of the loftiest plane in Britain. The tulip tree there has reached a height of 105 feet, with a girth of 17 feet. Another, of equal height, but less girth, is reported from Strathfieldsaye, which I must have missed when I was there, for I have no note about it.

In Scotland, the largest tulip tree I have seen is one at the Hirsel, in Berwickshire. Loudon mentioned it in 1837 as being 100 years old and 20 feet in girth, but when I saw it last, some fifteen years ago, it was failing in the upper storey, though it still had some vigorous foliage. It is said to bear flowers every year; though Lord Barrymore tells me that in his famous arboretum on Fota Island, Cork Harbour, the tulip tree grows well, 87 feet high and 11 feet 7 inches in girth, but never flowers. Probably, like the Oriental plane, it demands hotter summers than we can give it in the north and west. In the southern counties of England it blossoms abundantly, and occasionally ripens seed.

Tulip tree timber is not of the first quality. Professor Sargent describes it as light, soft, and brittle. Nevertheless, it is much used in America for interior work and boatbuilding, and is imported by English merchants under the name of yellow poplar or canary-wood. Mr. Elwes, who had a fine collection of different kinds of timber made into furniture and panels, says it closely resembles magnolia wood, which is not to be wondered at, seeing that the tulip tree belongs to the order Magnoliaceæ.

Few people plant tulip trees nowadays, more's the pity; for they are far more decorative than many of the conifers which have gone so far to thrust deciduous trees out of fashion. It grieved me some years ago to see a Spanish silver fir (_Abies pinsapo_), one of the least majestic of its family, planted as the memorial of a royal visit to a fine English demesne; it grieves me still when I reflect how little chance it has of thriving on a shaven lawn.

The Hawthorn

"Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, Than doth a rich-embroidered canopy To kings that fear their subjects' treachery? O, yes, it doth--a thousandfold it doth." (_Third Henry VI._ act ii. sc. 5.)