292 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



There are two species of willow usually cultivated as 

 shade trees. The White Willow (Fig. 

 72, which is rather a superannuated spe- 

 cimen) generally occupies a low, moist 

 situation, on the brink of some rivulet or 

 stream. It is nearly valueless except 

 in the shade it affords. The bright, 

 orange twigs and branches furnish an 

 unfailing supply of primitive whistles for 

 FIG. 72. the youngsters in the spring. The 



Weeping W^illow is a tree of variegated foliage, and long 

 flexile twigs, sometimes trailing the ground for yards in 

 length. Its soft, silvery leaves are among the earliest of 

 spring, and the last to maintain their verdure in autumn. 

 But its wood is of little value. 



The Locust (Fig. 73) is a beautiful tree, of rapid growth, 

 flowering profusely, with its layers or massive 

 flakes of innumerable leaflets of the deepest 

 verdure. The wood is unrivalled for durabili- 

 ty as ship timber, except by the live-oak ; and 

 for posts or exposure to the weather, it is ex- 

 ceeded only by the savin or red cedar. It has 

 of late years, been subject to severe attacks and 

 FIO. 73. great injury from the borer, a worm against 

 whose ravages hitherto, there has been no successful remedy. 

 The Button-wood, Sycamore, Plane-tree or Water-beach, 

 by all of which names it is known in different parts of this 

 country, is of gigantic dimensions when occupying a rich and 

 moist, alluvial soil. One found on the banks of the Ohio 

 measured 47 feet in circumference, at a height of four feet 

 from the ground. Its lofty mottled trunk, its huge irregular 

 limbs, and its numerous pendant balls (in which are com- 

 pressed myriads of seeds with their plumy tufts, that are 

 wafted to immense distances for propagation), have ren- 

 dered it occasionally a favorite. They are often seen on 

 the banks of our rivers, almost constituting a hedge ; and 

 sometimes they completely span streams of considerable 

 size. The wood is cross-grained, and intractable for work- 

 ing, and the timber is of little use except for fuel. 



The Magnolia (Magnolia grandiftora) is a splendid south- 

 ern evergreen, with a beautiful fir or cone-like top, bearing 

 leaves greatly increased in size and thickness beyond those of 

 the evergreen oaks, and of equally deep, perennial verdure. I 

 Among these, the large snow white blossoms, six or seven 

 inches in diameter, and of great fragrance, spangle,in leisure 



