288 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



the crack-willow, in order to obtain the roots, which are 

 used for staining the Easter eggs of a purple colour : an 

 ancient custom, which likewise prevails in Scotland. Well 

 might the lonely traveller turn with instinctive dread when 

 meeting a company of wild-looking men, armed with 

 hatchets, and having red hands, as if returning from some 

 mortal fray. But he need not fear. That terrifying colour 

 is caused by having bruised the Aphis Salicis, which par- 

 ticularly infests this kind of willow, and is filled with a 

 deep red fluid, resembling blood ; hence persons employed 

 either in felling the crack-willow, or stripping the branches, 

 have their hands of 'the same ensanguined hue. 



Those sterile growing-places, which in Sweden the crack- 

 willow especially affects, are also cheered by the round- 

 eared sallow, which in this country prefers woods and 

 hedges, and dry mountainous heaths. Young people 

 look for them in the thawing months, hopeful to see that 

 the flower-buds have begun to open. This tree is one of 

 nature's surest monitors, a beacon shrub, concerning which 



