WILLOW. 287 



their cheerless aspect. Useful, also, is this favourite shrub ; 

 for, like the water sallow, of which the bark is manufactured 

 into coarse paper and pasteboard, it also may be converted 

 to the use of the paper-maker. At Turin, especially, the 

 fabrication of paper, both for writing, printing, and 

 wrapping, made from the thin bark of willow and poplar 

 trees, has been fully approved and sanctioned by the 

 Academy of Sciences. 



Growing ofttimes amid the wildest solitudes, by Swedish 

 waterfalls and rocks, where not a sound, excepting that of 

 headlong torrents, interrupts their awful stillness, the crack- 

 willow, equally indigenous in Britain, is much sought for 

 by the natives. Young men go forth, armed with hatchets 

 and strong iron-spiked poles, whereby to assist them in 

 climbing rocks or passing over a slippery surface ; and loud 

 is the huzza which announces that the most adventurous 

 have gained the high growing-place of this wild shrub. 

 Others follow in succession ; and when the whole are 

 assembled, they begin with much ceremony to cut down 



