THE PI.ANT WORLD 227 



Welsh willow. They grew the rods and the manufacture into baskets 

 was made profitable by whole families engaging in the weaving. Their 

 product has always been a cheap variety of basket, since they use steam 

 in peeling the rods, which gives them an undesirable dark color. When 

 the industry was extended farther west and down to the Baltimore dis- 

 trict, Maryland, hand -peeled rods were used and a much higher grade 

 basket manufactured. But this country, in the extensive use of willow 

 ware, has never approached Europe, where are found not only heavy farm 

 baskets and receptacles made of unpeeled willow, but market, clothes, 

 and fruit baskets of peeled willow, furniture, hampers, and trunks, and 

 most artistically wrought split willow ware designed for countless other 

 uses. Could all these be as cheaply manufactured here as there, their 

 use by us would doubtless be as extensive as that across the sea. For 

 willow ware is not only prettier than its substitutes, but what is still 

 more important, lighter and more durable. 



Another use for willow in this country is found in the growing de- 

 mand for willow furniture, which has become fashionable in the North, 

 while in the warm climate of the South it is rapidly taking the place of 

 upholstered furniture. Good wages can be paid in the manufacture of 

 this kind of furniture. It is a profitable industry and steadily growing 

 in importance, while willow basket making has barely held its own in 

 the last decade. The demand for furniture material has been met to 

 this time chiefly by importing French rods. But this can be changed if 

 our own willow growers will adopt more scientific methods of culture and 

 market their rods only after they are well seasoned — not soon after cut- 

 ting, as is now customary. 



In the bulletin the Bureau will issue in a few days every aspect of 

 willow culture and manufacture is exhaustively treated. The character 

 of the ground to be used, preliminary cultivation, planting, weeding and 

 cultivation, cutting, sorting, peeling, and packing, all are discussed 

 thoroughly, and advice as to each branch of the work is clearly given. 

 The virtues and defects of the different species of willows suited to 

 basket manufacture are described. Inundation in the spring after harvest 

 and before the new crop season opens is a new aid in protecting the holts 

 from insects and in fertilizing the sets especially advised by the Bureau. 



Dr. C. E. Waters 's note on Pogonia verticillata in the November 

 number of the Plant World and his statement in regard to the rarity 

 of its flowering in the vicinity of Baltimore, reminds me that the past 

 spring I found several dozens of those orchids in a wooded ravine near 

 Washington and of the very many plants examined there were but four 

 flowering specimens seen. Jos. A. Painter. 



