306 THE WILLOW. 



varying in height from sixty feet to a few inches. They 

 grow rapidly, and readily shoot from cuttings. The wood 

 is white : the bark of the trunk rather smooth than other- 

 wise ; that of the branches downy or smooth ; in the latter 

 case sometimes to such a degree as to appear varnished. 

 In most species it is stringy and unusually tough, and in 

 all is of a bitter taste, owing to the presence of a chemical 

 principle called salicine, which possesses nearly the same 

 medicinal properties as quinine, the substance which is 

 extracted from Peruvian bark. The leaves are undivided, 

 either notched at the edges or even, stalked, often fur- 

 nished with stipules, smooth or silky, downy or even 

 cottony, and varying in shape from linear to round, some 

 modification of the ellipse being, however, by far the 

 commonest form. The flowers, which are catkins, appear 

 early, and are of two kinds, each growing on a separate 

 tree. The barren catkin is an erect stem, closely invested 

 on all sides with leafy overlapping scales, within each of 

 which are from two to five delicate stamens, with two- 

 lobed yellow anthers (fig. n), and a gland containing 

 honey. Before expansion the catkin resembles a large 

 silky bud, and is afterwards more or less ob- 

 long in shape. The catkin of the fertile tree 

 is nearly the same as the barren catkin, but 

 each scale contains, instead of stamens, a single 

 pistil with two stigmas, which as it enlarges 

 becomes an egg-shaped germen (fig. o) of one 

 cell and two valves. The seed-vessel, when 

 ripe, splits on its two opposite sides, the valves 

 roll back (fig. p) and disclose numerous 

 minute seeds, each of which is tufted with 

 downy or silky hair (Jig. r). Some species of 

 Willow are in full flower by the third week 

 in March ; and whenever a bright, warm day 

 occurs after this time, the bees sally forth and 

 resort in swarms to the fragrant catkins for a spring break- 

 fast. I have noticed them busily engaged as early as the 



