282 VOICES FKOM THE WOODLANDS. 



pant, beside the cottage door, is made of its slender shoots ; 

 the cradle, too, in which a sleeping infant is rocked, 

 often within the same cottage, and the large family basket, 

 which older children bear forth with pride into the adjacent 

 orchard during the time of apple-gathering, are each con- 

 structed from the shoots of the rose-willow. 



This species, on account of its long and pliant branches, 

 was probably used for making bee-hives in the days of 

 Virgil. 



" Whether thou build the palace of thy bees 

 With twisted osiers, or with bark of trees, 

 Make but a narrow mouth ; for as the cold 

 Congeals into a lump the solid gold, 

 So 'tis again dissolved with summer heat, 

 And the sweet labours both extremes defeat ; 

 And therefore, not in vain the industrious hind 

 With dauby wax and flowers the chinks hath lined, 

 And with their stores of gathered glue, contrive 

 To stop the vents and crannies of their hive." 



Nor less available are the pliant branches of the fine- 

 basket osier, with those of the red willow, for different 



