Junior Naturalist Monthly. 337 



days the dark buds mil begin to swell, soft, white hairs will peep 

 out, and soon you will have pussy willows in full bloom, with the 

 cold winds howling outside, and the snow still piled high in the roads. 



But who wdll get the twigs? We all know that willows are common 

 plants. They grow everywhere and there are a great many of them, 

 but how many know pussy willows when you see them in the winter? 

 Can you always tell whether a twig is a willow twig or not? Let us see 

 how willows look as we find them in winter, and then when our 

 pussy willows come out w^e can learn still more. 



All our woody plants, like trees, shrubs and vines, have their leaves 

 growing either in whorls ; i. e., three or more at a place, like catalpas; 

 or opposite, i. e., two leaves opposite each other at the same point, 

 like maples, ashes, lilacs, and honeysuckles; or alternate, i. e., one leaf 

 at one place and another higher up, alternating first on one side and 

 then on another like climbing bittersweet, roses, sumacs, apples, 

 pears, peaches, cherries, oaks, beeches, elms, willows and many 

 others. The willows, then, belong to this large group of plants with 

 alternate leaves. In the winter time, the leaves are gone, but each 

 leaf has left a scar, and above each leaf -scar is a bud; so w^e can tell 

 whether a plant had w^horled, opposite, or alternate leaves by the 

 arrangement of the leaf-scars or the buds, or the branches which 

 grew from the buds. 



Now how are we to tell willow twigs from all the other alternate- 

 leaved twigs? This we can do by looking at the buds. It is very 

 interesting to study winter buds. Different trees have very dif- 

 ferent buds. Notice how- different a hard maple bud is from a soft 

 maple bud; an elm from a horse-chestnut, a bass wood from a butter- 

 nut, or the long, pointed buds of the beech from the short, silky buds 

 of the sumac which we have studied. We find that winter buds 

 differ greatly, not only in size and shape, but also in covering. , Some 

 buds are covered with many small, overlapping scales, others with 

 only a few large scales, and still others are covered with one large bud 

 scale. This is how we can tell willows from all the rest of our trees 

 and shrubs in the winter time. The willows are the only alternate- 

 leaved, woody plants which have but one bud scale. Some of our 

 willows are trees and some are only bushes or shrubs. The most 

 common willow is the yellow-twigged willow\ This tree has yellow 

 twigs and buds wiiich turn a beautiful bright yellow^ as spring advances. 

 Of the shrubby willows, the heart-leaved willow. Fig. 3, and the 

 pussy willow are the most common. The heart -leaved willow has 

 pinkish twigs and buds and the buds taper to a point which curves 

 out from the twig. The pussy willow has larger, dark brown or 

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