AMERICAN FORESTRY 



VOL. XXIII 



JANUARY 1917 



NO. 277 



iS 



THE WILLOWS 



IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERISTICS 

 BY SAMUEL B. DETWILER 



THE willow is an everyday tree, so humble that some 

 one has called it "the Cinderella of trees." It has 

 long been considered the symbol of unrequited love, 

 and, from the time 

 when the Psalmist re- 

 corded that the He- 

 brews hung their harps 

 upon the willows and 

 wept by the rivers of 

 Babylon, poets have 

 referred to this tree as 

 the "sad willow," al- 

 though it is alluded to 

 earlier in the Bible as 

 a "goodly tree," to be 

 used as an emblem of 

 rejoicing. Certainly 

 there is nothingsolemn 

 in the shrill piping of 

 the willow whistles 

 that gladdens the 

 heart of the small boy 

 in spring time. 



The willows are 

 very difficult to distin- 

 guish botanically be- 

 cause the large num- 

 ber of species which 

 are clearly separate 

 and distinct have 

 numerous varieties 

 which grade into one 

 another. There are 

 about 175 different 

 willows in the world, 

 of which approxi- 

 mately 100 are found 

 in North America. In 

 general , the willows are 

 native of the colder 

 temperate regions of 

 the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, but several are 

 found in warm cli- 

 mates. The willows 

 grow to the very limits 

 of perpetual snow in 



From Pennsylvania Trees. 



THE BLACK WILLOW 



1 A statnenate flowering branch. 2. Stamenate flower. 3. A pistillate flowering branch. 4. Pis- 

 tillate flower. 5. A fruiting branch. 6. A seed with hairs. 7. A winter twig. 8. Section of 

 winter twig with bud and leaf scar. 9. A leafy branch 



the mountains and no other woody plant except the birch 



grows so far north in the Arctic regions. 



A few kinds of willows grow to be large-sized trees, 



50 to 100 feet high 

 and 2 or 3 feet in 

 diameter, but the ma- 

 jority arc shrubs which 

 occasionally reach a 

 size large enough to be 

 termed trees. Some 

 of the species that 

 have their home above 

 timber line on the 

 mountains, near per- 

 petual snow, lie pros- 

 trate in mats only an 

 inch or two higher 

 than the ground. Na- 

 ture has provided 

 many plants to clothe 

 the waste places of the 

 earth, and the willow 

 is one of these. Some 

 kinds will grow on 

 dry soils, but mostly 

 they are found along 

 streams, in swamps or 

 on moist soils. They 

 spring up abundantly 

 and, by rapid growth, 

 quickly take posses- 

 sion of the territory 

 suited to them. The 

 Children of Israel were 

 promised to be multi- 

 plied like "willows by 

 the water courses." 



The willows belong 

 to the lowest order of 

 deciduous broad- 

 leaved trees, and im- 

 pressions of leaves in 

 rocks show that wil- 

 lows nourished when 

 the earth was young. 

 It is probable that 

 they were one of the 

 3 



