2IO F0RES7 TREKS. 



is yet active, preparatory to the rest that takes place during the winter 

 months, and yet it is a question if indeed the vegetable life is not always 

 active, though the effects are not apparent. 



Willows. 



•' The Willows waked from winter's death, 

 Give out a fragrance like thy breath — 

 The summer has begun.'" 



Professor Lindley unites the Poplars and Willows in one Natural 

 Order : the alliance seems a very natural one. In many particulars 

 their properties and general habits are alike. 



Besides our native Willows, we have others that have been mtro- 

 duced and naturalized in this country. The elegant Babylonian or 

 Weeping Willow, may be seen in many of our gardens and by city 

 sidewalks, but being an introduced tree is apt to be injured by severe 

 frosts, when grown inland and to the north and east, and does not 

 succeed in cold, exposed situations, though it strikes readily from 

 slips. The Willows that are most common under cultivation are the 

 Golden Barked Willow, and the Silver or White Willow. The former 

 is a tree of rapid growth and very ornamental, especially to the Winter 

 landscape, to which its bright golden -barked twigs give a liveliness and 

 colouring, when nothing but the white snow and dark sombre ever- 

 greens meet the eye. 



Like the Lombardy Poplar, the (xolden Willow marks the habitation 

 of man ; it it a familiar and domestic tree, for it is never seen apart from 

 the homestead. Its rapid growth gives it an early place in the settler's 

 garden or clearing about the dwelling, or in the village street. Many 

 magnificent specimens of this ornamental tree may be seen in some of 

 our older towns overshadowing the sidewalks, and making a grateful 

 shade during the hot hours of the Surnmcr day — cooling the heated air 

 by the incessant play of the slender drooping branchlets and silvery leaves, 



'J"he AV'illow has been used as a symbol of grief from its down- 

 ward drooping habit. It was worn in token of sorrow by disappointed 

 forsaken lovers, as well as by those who mourned for the death of their 

 beloved. Herrick, our old iMiglish poet, says, addressing the ^^'illow, 



" Thou art to all lost love the best, 

 The only true plant found I 

 Wherewith young nun and maids, distressed 

 And left of love are crowned.'" 



While other trees are yet but saplings, the White and Yellow 

 Willows will have attained their full height. The deeply rifted bark of 

 the trunk and large widely spreading branches, bespeaking premature 

 old age. I remember a farmer pointing out to me two grand hoary 



