82 TREE ANCESTORS 



and the trivial specific differentiation of so many of the species 

 makes them a very baffling group for the systematic botanist. 

 Although both willows and poplars come from a very old stock, a 

 stock as old as any of our trees except the conifers, and one much 

 more ancient than that of our familiar warm blooded animals, the 

 willows seem to have reached the zenith of their development in 

 post glacial times, while the poplars on the other hand were more 

 varied and widespread in earlier geologic times. 



THE WILLOWS (sALIx) 



The name willow suggests to most dwellers in temperate climes 

 the graceful pendulous branches of the weeping or so-called Baby- 

 lonian willow or the silky catkins of the pussywillows collected 

 in the early springs of our childhood days. We associate the 

 gnarled trunks of willows with Corot's paintings, or, if we have 

 chanced to live in certain districts, we think of the willow chiefly 

 as a cultivated crop the shoots of which are utilized for the making 

 of baskets, wicker furniture and willow-ware. Possibly in youth- 

 ful chemical experiences we have tried to make gunpowder from 

 willow charcoal, or charcoal crayons, and what American boy does 

 not know that willow wood makes good baseball bats or that 

 whistles can be manufactured from the twigs. Willow, of course, 

 enters into a great variety of uses, some of which will be enumerated, 

 but probably its oldest use was the plaiting of its shoots into bas- 

 kets or similar articles. I have no doubt that the men, or more 

 likely the women, of the Old Stone Age made baskets of willow 

 twigs, since plaiting is part of the art of the most primitive of exist- 

 ing peoples. Basket willows were cultivated by the Romans, 

 who used the shoots for making bee hives, baskets, garden and 

 vineyard trellises. The light elastic v/ood they covered with raw- 

 hide and bossed with brass for the shields of their legionaries. Pliny 

 mentions four species of willow so used in his day {Salix fragilis, 

 S. purpurea, S. amygdalina, and S. viminalis). 



During the Middle Ages the basketmakers guilds were of con- 

 siderable importance particularly in France, Germany and the 



