208 THE BOOK OF FORESTRY 



WILLOWS 



The willow family is the most widely distributed of 

 all the trees which inhabit the Northern Hemisphere. 

 It extends from the Arctic circle to the equator and is 

 found in both the Old and New Worlds. The wood 

 is soft, light and tough, but usually of little durability 

 or strength. 



The wood of willow warps considerably and while it 

 furnishes a charcoal valuable in the manufacture of 

 gunpowder it is of little importance in the lumber in- 

 dustry. The use of willow osiers for basket-making is 

 growing in importance and in some parts of the country 

 they are raised artificially in plantations called "willow 

 holts." There are twenty-five willows of tree size in 

 the United States and about fifty-four shrubs. Many 

 foreign species, like the white willow, have been intro- 

 duced from Europe and have become wild. At present 

 as far as numbers are concerned the foreign willows 

 are more important than the native species. The 

 weeping willow, an introduced species, is often used for 

 ornamental planting. Most of the American species are 

 confined to low moist ground or to high elevations. As 

 a family they are of little importance and no special 

 effort is made to tell one kind from another. 



