WILLOWS; "PUSSY" AND OTHER. 



BY DR. WILLIAM WHITMAN BAILEY. 



N'ATURE is especially fond of tassels. With them she 

 clothes many of her noblest trees. In late May we 

 see sturch' oaks decked out with pendant catkins ; in July 

 the grand chestnut bursts forth into jets and fountains of 

 creamj'^ bloom. Birches, hazels, alders, poplars, horn- 

 beams, willows — all have tassels. 



The amentaceous trees usually have the two kinds of 

 flowers separated either on different parts of the same 

 plant, as in alders, or on perfectl}" distinct plants, as with 

 willows. In other words, willows are distinctly male and 

 female. When in bloom we learn to know them apart even 

 at a distance ; the female trees bear more greenish catkins. 

 Close examination shows, too, the flask-like pistils stand- 

 ing in the axils of silk3' scales. These compose the cluster. 

 If nov^, we look at the male flowers on another shoot, we 

 find each flower to comprise a scale and two stamens. 

 Neither kind has either calyx or corolla, but both develop 

 abundant honey, and bees come for it from afar. 



The term "puss}^" does not apply par excellence, to 

 any particular willow. Several produce the silky clusters 

 so suggestive of little kittens. As harbingers of spring 

 they are loved by everybody. They will vary much in size 

 according to the species. Sometimes they are large and 

 dark, and when about to bloom, are shot through with 

 flashes of deep red and gold. 



Scott sings of the "wild and willowed shore," and he 

 associates willows with stream and river banks; perhaps, 

 also, with grave-yards and old fashioned tomb-stones. 

 The weeping willovv", {Salix Bahylonica) has long been a 

 symbol of continuous grief. Dr. Gray used to say that if 

 this was the Babylon willow, it "must have been a Jew's- 

 harp that was hung upon it." The branches are, indeed, 

 extremely brittle. 



We recall here the death scene of Ophelia, and the 

 willow which "grows aslant a brook, that shows his hoar 

 leaves in the glassy stream." What close observation 



