306 THE WILLOW. 



varying in height 'from sixty feet to a few inches. The}' 

 grow rapidly, and readily shoot from cuttings. The wood 

 is white : the bark of the trunk rather smooth than 

 otherwise ; that of the branches downy or smooth ; in 

 the latter case sometimes to such a degree as to appear 

 varnished. In most species it is stringy and unusually 

 tough, and in all is of a bitter taste, owing to the presence 

 of a chemical principle called salicine, which possesses 

 nearly the same medicinal properties as quinine, the 

 substance which is extracted from Peruvian bark. The 

 leaves are undivided, either notched at the edges or 

 even, stalked, often furnished with stipules, smooth or 

 silky, downy or even cottony, and varying in shape 

 from linear to round, some modification of the ellipse 

 being, however, by far the commonest form. The 

 flowers, which are catkins, appear early, and are of two 

 kinds, each growing on a separate tree. The barren 

 catkin is an erect stem, closely invested on all sides 

 with leafy overlapping scales, within each of which are 

 from two to five delicate stamens, with two-lobed yellow 

 anthers and a gland containing honey. Before expan- 

 sion the catkin resembles a large silky bud, and is 

 afterwards more or less oblong in shape. The catkin of 

 the fertile tree is nearly the same as the barren catkin, 

 but each scale contains, instead of stamens, a single 

 pistil with two stigmas, which as it enlarges becomes 

 an egg-shaped germen of one cell and two valves. The 

 seed-vessel, when ripe, splits on its two opposite sides, 

 the valves roll back and disclose numerous minute 

 seeds, each of which is tufted with downy or silky hair. 

 Some species of Willow are in full flower by the third 

 week in March ; and whenever a bright, warm day 

 occurs after this time, the bees sally forth and resort 

 in swarms to the fragrant catkins for a spring break- 

 fast. I have noticed them busily engaged as early as 

 the 22nd, and others have observed them yet earlier. 

 The value of Willow-bushes near hives can scarcely be 



