Minnesota Plant Life. 



241 



swamps. A few, however, are trees and of goodly size. The 

 distinctive habitat of willows is along the banks of streams and 

 around the shores of lakes or marshes. Their twigs are used 

 in the manufacture of wickerware ; and bushed-willows or pol- 

 larded willows, are favorite plants for hedge-rows in the east 

 and in England, but are not so frequent in Minnesota. The 

 two most conspicuous willow trees of the state are the black 

 willows with their slender leaves bearing conspicuous stipules 

 at the base, abundant in the north, and the peach-leafed wil- 



FlG. 110. Beach vegetation, Garden Island, I,ake of the Woods. The long-leafed willow 

 forms the outer zone, and the black willow the inner. After photograph hj' the author. 



lows, with much broader leaves and devoid of stipules on ma- 

 ture twigs, more common in the south. 



The hoary willow, the gray willow, the pussy-willow, the 

 heart-leafed willow, the myrtle-leafed willow and the long- 

 leafed or sand-bar willow are encountered ordinarily as low 

 shrubs up to ten or twelve feet in height. The familiar "pussies" 

 of early spring are the spicate flower-clusters of some willow 

 from which the bud-scales have opened or fallen, revealing the 

 branch covered with bractlets in the axils of which the flowers 

 will open. The edges of the bractlets have silky hairs which 

 17 



