20 TREE-PLANTING. 



indigenous in waste ground, particularly in cold and 

 marshy situations ; and with its various varieties, is 

 among the broadest-leaved of the willow tribe. In 

 rich wet ground, a seedling plant of two years old 

 will occasionally produce several shoots three or four 

 feet high, and under the most adverse circumstances, 

 will generally ripen its growth to the very topmost 

 bud. The healthy young shoots have a dark-brown 

 glossy bark, and the buds being white and promi- 

 nent present an agreeable contrast to the eye ; while 

 the male plant throws out a profusion of catkins 

 during the early part of the season, which gives it a 

 handsome and striking appearance, and causes it to 

 be highly ornamental. Upon a farm where there is 

 a demand for sheep-fences, or similar articles, the 

 goat willow may be grown in the form of coppice, and 

 cut down every three or four years ; no other tree 

 producing so great an amount of faggot wood. In 

 situations best adapted for its growth, a healthy stock 

 will sometimes, in one season, throw out a sheaf of 

 straight clear shoots, measuring from eight to twelve 

 feet in length ; many of them are three inches in 

 circumference at a yard from the ground. When 

 grown in the form of timber, this species frequently 

 attains the height of forty or fifty feet, with a trunk 

 from one and a half to two feet in diameter. 



In marshy districts, how often are there to be seen 

 bare regions as flat and unbroken as the palm of one's 

 hand, save where a deep drain intersects the land 

 perhaps? For these the goat willow is eminently 

 applicable, affording a valuable shelter in maritime 

 situations, withstanding the influence of the sea better 

 than most plants. The timber is soft, of course, like 



