72 March — The Willow. 



pale green, were brilliant in the first spring sunshine. 

 Then there was the sallow-willow, with its soft white 

 downy blossoms, and the brilliant silver of the osier 

 changing so beautifully, according to the direction in 

 which you look at it ; for if you look in the direction 

 of the down it is silvery, but if against it, then you see 

 a delicate gray purple. This purple reddens later as 

 the anthers become visible, and finally turns to a 

 golden yellow with pollen, but the yellow is beautifully 

 moderated by being always on a gray ground. Hardly 

 any thing in Nature is more lovely than the round-eared 

 willow in full blossom, especially the glory of the male 

 tree, with the mingled greenish gold on its flowers, 

 where the anthers make a sort of light golden filigree 

 on a ground of tender green. The female tree is much 

 less splendid, but her pale flowers are pleasant as young 

 foliage is, with their soft grayish verdure on which lies 

 no dust of gold. A little later in the season the com- 

 mon white willow is sufficiently leaved to show a delicate 

 green bloom in the distance when caught by the sun, but 

 when the sun is clouded the bloom seems to disappear, 

 and in certain positions relatively to the light the green 

 will be scarcely, if at all, visible. This adds much to 

 the liveliness and variety of the spring landscape, as the 

 color comes and goes under the sunshine and cloud, 

 adding greatly to our sense of motion and change in 

 Nature, — a sense that some artists have had in great 

 strength, and even expressed verbally, which is rare 

 with them. There is nothing prettier in the natural 

 landscape than the appearance, and vanishing, and 



