230 



THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



different species, is a well-known and prominent 

 object. Well known ! true ; but how many know 

 the number of species of willow that are more or 

 less common in this country ? Five or six, of 

 course. No, seventy, or thereabouts, be the same 

 more or less, as our legal friends say. Certainly 

 not less either, for the willow has a bewildering 

 way of striking out an apparently new species now 

 and then ; a freak which may be very amusing to 

 it, but gives no end of trouble to botanists. 



The pollard-willow, with its stumpy, many-leaved 

 head, has often afforded us concealment, as from 

 its overhanging shelter we have fished for chub in 

 the river reach below. 



All the willows have a silvery-grey under-surface 

 to the leaves j and as the breeze sweeps down the 

 river, the willows quiver and whiten as they proudly 

 shake out their garments, while hypocritically bend- 

 ing away from the too-eagerly wooing wind. 



Fairest of all the many -faced clan is the goat- 

 willow, round-leaved sallow, or palm. When the 

 " bleak winds of March make us shudder and 

 shiver," the long wands of the palm stand out stark 

 and bronze by the steel-blue pools. Then the rich 

 red-brown buds open, and with silver- silken lustre 

 the numerous catkins clothe the rods, so that the 

 bushes become like white and shining clouds dropped 

 upon the yellow-green fields. Then, when the 

 primrose peeps, golden-eyed, from the old dead 

 leaves and wind-laid brambles, the silver buds grow 



