THE WILLOWS 



CHIEFLY quick-growing, water-loving trees and shrubs, with 

 slender, supple twigs, and buds with a single protective cap or 

 scale of two coats. Wood light, soft. Leaves simple, alter- 

 nate, narrow and pointed, deciduous. Flowers dioecious, in 

 loose catkins, each flower subtended by a bract having an 

 entire hairy margin. Fruit a 2-valved pod with papery walls; 

 seeds minute, in copious hairy float? - 



55 



