New Series, 1907. 



655 



bring them into the house for forcing in water. 

 The warmth and light of a sunny window wiU 

 help them to make immediate use of the food 

 which the tree stored away in the summer past, 

 and you may have leaves and blossoms long 

 before the snow is gone out-of-doors. 



You will be interested in the study of many 

 kinds of trees, but one of the most attractive, 

 and among the easiest to force, is the willow. 

 There are many kinds, some large trees, and 

 some only shrubs, but all are useful and at- 

 tractive. 



Observe closely the tree from which you 

 gather twigs, its size, and the color of its bark 

 — it is from the bark that the black willow takes 

 its name. The silky willow's purple twigs and 

 the golden osier's yellow ones will help you 111 

 like manner to know them. How many scales 

 in the bud coverings? Do you find any at the 

 very tips of the twigs? As the " pussies " grow 

 some will cover themselves with golden or red- 

 dish fuzz according to the kind, and be as dusty 

 as millers. Others will be small, and silvery 

 green, with no dust or fuzz at all, yet apparently 

 on the same kind of twig, though from different 

 trees. They are the same kind of willow and I hope you will remember 

 to watch some of these small green catkins on the growing tree. In June 

 or late in May you will find that the little green catkins have grown large 

 and are covered with rows of tiny pointed pods, which open just as milk 

 weed pods do when ripe, and out float the tiny seeds, each borne up by the 

 silken wings which carry them far from the parent tree. 



When your twigs have been only a few days in water you will find 

 that all the willows have put out rootlets and have begun to grow. Even 

 if a twig happens to be wrong end up, if it has plenty of warmth and 

 moisture, the rootlets will often form. This habit of taking root easily 

 makes the willow most useful as a " soil-binder " when planted along the 

 banks of streams that " wash " and overflow in flood-times. It has also 

 other uses ; its wood makes charcoal of the finest grain, which is therefore 

 used in the manufacture of gunpowder. Perhaps your mother's clothes- 

 basket or the baby's carriage is made of peeled willow withes, grown for 

 the purpose by " pollarding " or cutting back the tree known as the basket 

 willow. The wooden shoes worn by many of the working people of 



Fig. 2. — Seed bearing cat- 

 kins of the zi'illozus. 



