THE MERICAN BOTANIST 11 



The term, pussy, does not apply par excellence, to any 

 particular willow. Several produce the silky catkins so sug- 

 gestive of little kittens running up the bough. As harbingers 

 of spring they are loved by everybody and even before they 

 bloom they are lovely. They vary, according to the species, 

 very much in size. Sometimes they are very large and dark, 

 of a sort of slate color shot through with flashes of red and 

 gold ; again they are pure silky white or a light purple or dove 

 color. It is only in the staminate catkins that one sees the 

 gleams of the rising sun. The pistillate ones, when in flower, 

 are of a sickly green ; when in fruit a fluffy mass of down. 



Scott sings of the "wild and willowed shore" and we 

 naturally associate willows with stream and river banks ; per- 

 haps also with grave-yards and old tombstones upon which 

 they are often sculptured. The weeping willow has long been 

 an emblem of grief. We recall here the death scene of Ophelia 

 and the willow which 



" Grows aslant a brook 

 That shows his hoar leaves 

 In the scanty stream." 

 What a touch of close observation is here! It is only the un- 

 derside of these leaves that are whitened. 



Willows are so numerous and varied that if it were pos- 

 sible to grow them all together — a specimen of each — we 

 would have a little but much diversified forest. They are a 

 difficult study and but few persons really know them. They 

 are taken up by the student who loves an intricate problem of 

 discrimination, as one regards Carex, Potamogeton or Aster. 

 As a rule our native species are none of them large. Some al- 

 pine ones are very small. They are North Tmperate plants ex- 

 tending well toward the Pole and at such remote limits, as on 

 high mountains, are dwarfed. The willow of scripture some 

 consider to be the oleander which is. of course, not a willow at 

 all. Speaking of Salix Babylonica Dr. Asa Gray used to say 



