THAT WILLOW CONE 



October 2?th 



ANY one who is at all acquainted 

 with botany knows that a willow 

 has no right to have a cone. The 

 pine, spruce, hemlock, larch, and 

 others of their evergreen tribe are 

 supposed to have a monopoly of 

 cones. The magnolia has a sort of 

 cone-shaped fruit, 'tis true, and the 

 tulip -tree another, but they are not true 

 cones, after all, and there are only a few 

 of similar mimics among fruits. Yet here 

 we find a willow bearing dozens of cones ap- 

 parently as perfect as any that the pine-tree can 

 show, which is, in truth, no fruit at all. They are 

 an inch or an inch and a half in length, and grow 

 on the tips of the branches. Yet we know perfectly 

 well that all the axils of the leaves below have already 



