NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE WILLOWS AND 



POPLARS 



EDWARD W. BERRY 



The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 



The name willow suggests to most dwellers in temperate 

 climes the graceful pendulous branches of the weeping or so- 

 called babylonian willow or the silky catkins of the pussy- 

 willows collected in the early springs of our childhood days. 

 We associate the gnarled trunks of willows with Carot's paint- 

 ings, or, if we have chanced to live in certain districts, we think 

 of the willow chiefly as a cultivated crop the shoots of which 

 are utilized for the making of baskets, wicker furniture and, 

 willow-ware. Possibly in youthful chemical experiences we 

 have tried to make gun-powder from willow charcoal, or char- 

 coal crayons, and what American boy does not know that wil- 

 low wood makes good baseball bats or that whistles can be 

 manufactured from the twigs. Willow, of course, enters into a 

 great variety of uses, some of which will be enumerated, but 

 probably its oldest use was the plaiting of its shoots into baskets 

 or similar articles. I have no doubt, that the men, or more 

 likely the women, of the old stone age made baskets of willow 

 twigs, since plaiting is part of the culture of the most primitive 

 of existing peoples. Basket willows were cultivated by the 

 Romans, who used the shoots for making bee hives, baskets, 

 garden and vineyard trellises. The light elastic wood they 

 covered with rawhide and bossed with brass for the shields of 

 their legionaries. Pliny mentions four species of willow so 

 used in his day (Salix fragilis, S. purpurea, S. amygdalina, and 

 S. viminalis). 



During the Middle Ages the basketmakers guilds were of 

 considerable importance particularly in France, Germany and 

 the Low Countries. These sank into insignificance during the 



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