HARDWOODS ON THE COUNTRY ESTATE 



787 



its quick and vigorous growth from 

 live stakes cut from growing trees. 

 One of the first leaves to appear in the 

 spring (as are also the black and pussy 

 willows), turning yellow in the fall, 

 usually very late, among the last down. 

 Identified by the light yellow branches 

 noticeable in the spring by a yellow 

 blotch along the stream side, before any 

 leaf is out and the first sign that the 

 forest is waking up. The weeping 

 willow, S. Babylonica, is a familiar 

 exotic, now at large in this country 

 growing wild. Known by its long 

 drooping twigs, 10 and 12 feet long. 

 Among our native 

 indigenous willows, 

 the black willow is 

 most common, seen 

 everywhere along 

 stream sides and in 

 swamps and ponds, 

 noted by its dark, 

 almost black bark 

 and narrow leaf with 

 the rounded base ; 

 also by its habit of 

 growing in clumps. 

 Out west we have a 

 willow called the 

 ' ' anglers misery, ' 'or 

 sand-bar willow 

 which grows where- 

 ever there are trout 

 and aids materially 

 in keeping up the 

 trout supply by 



making it impossible to land one without 

 going overboard through the willow stems 

 which crowd the stream bank. Not 

 common in the east. For the owner of 

 an estate the weeping, osier, black and 

 pussy willow are enough to work with, 

 and surely there is no finer water 

 decoration than these same trees. Seton 

 tells of the golden osiers on the dam at 

 Wyndygoul which eight years ago were 

 mere twigs and are now fine vigorous 

 trees. I have seen and admired them 

 and as I recall it they are now about 

 6 inches through and some 25 feet high. 

 In his new place, The Finchery, he 

 has been able to get splendid island 

 effects from an erstwhile marsh by 

 piling the dredgings about clumps of 

 black willows of venerable age and now 

 glorious in their island setting of lake 



water. S. Babylonica does best on 

 stream and lake banks where it can 

 festoon its long plumes over the still 

 waters beneath and charm every be- 

 holder with the reflected beauties of its 

 foliage. All the willows spread them- 

 selves about the country by dropping 

 their twigs into the stream, whence they 

 are carried on down until they find a 

 lodgment in some mud bank and take 

 root forthwith. The seeds ripen in 

 July in tiny capsules replacing the 

 flowers in the catkins and are blown far 

 by the wind. Nature's way of spread- 

 ing the species when a willow grows, as 



The Flowering Dogwood Blossom 



it often does, in a wet burr grass meadow 

 with no actual water anywhere in sight. 

 Nursery specimens of Babylonica, 8 to 

 10 feet high, cost about 75 cents and 

 of golden osier, 4 to 5 feet, 35 cents. 



Our two wild cherries next claim 

 attention. No forest is without them, 

 as the poorer the soil the more wild 

 cherries on it. Any base soil, especially 

 for serotina though it docs its proudest 

 on sand base. With us it makes a 

 tree about 40 feet high and a foot 

 through, though I have seen it in 

 Maryland and Delaware much larger. 

 In May the fragrance of its blossoms is 

 one of the olefactory delights of the 

 woods; a whiff of breeze just off a wild 

 cherry tree in full bloom is a thing to 

 make you stop and go back to get more 

 of it, no matter how pressing the busi- 



