386 



THE NATURE BOOK 



several times over, and still leave much 

 to be described. Indeed, that is one of 

 the great charms of the sea-shore ; it is 

 one of Nature's richest storehouses of 



wondrous and varied forms of life, that 

 offer interest and pleasure unending to 

 all who will but use their eyes and can 

 appreciate beauty of structure and colour. 

 F. Martin Dunxan. 



HOW TO KNOW THE TREES 

 GROWING IN BRITAIN 



With Notes, descriptive and photographic, for their Identification 

 in all Seasons of the Year 



By HENRY IRVING 



THE WILLOW S— I 



THROUGH a curious misreading of 

 an ancient incident the Willows 

 have long been made to symbolise 

 a brooding sorrow. It was not strange 

 that, to the weary hearts of the exiled 

 incitements to joyousness should have 

 served rather to evoke the opposite 

 emotions of bereavement and sorrow. 

 " By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat 

 down, yea, we wept, when we remem- 

 bered Zion. We hanged our harps upon 

 the willows in the midst thereof." To 

 the undisturbed in heart the wiUows 

 are suggestive of a serenely gracious 

 joyfulness. Garlanding the rounded river 

 pools, over which the gauzy-winged 

 children of the air dance out their short 

 day of life, and the swallow curves in 

 swift flight, pausing but to dip its 

 breast feathers in the alluring water, 

 across which the kingfisher with arrow- 

 like passage strikes its skj'-blue trail, 

 there, with lovely exuberant grace, the 

 W'illows keep homely festival. Even 

 when rudely pollarded, though at first 

 their club-headed trunks look gaunt and 

 almost ridiculous, yet they speedily ac- 

 quire a new kind of grace with the grow- 

 ing out of their long-spreading osier 

 branches. If not when standing singly, 

 yet in extended wavy line along the water 

 margin, they possess quahties sufficiently 

 picturesque to win regard, and, therewith. 



no little admiration for their brave re- 

 covery from cruel maiming. 



The Willows are a tribe in themselves, 

 with a multitude of related family groups. 

 They vary in character and habit from 

 tall, spreading trees to low-lying dwarfs 

 which barely over-top the grasses ; indeed, 

 the smallest of them, with buried stem, 

 scarce lifts its branch tips above the 

 mountain mosses. They are not only 

 numerous and various, they are most 

 intricately involved, having hybridised 

 almost without limit. An expert cannot 

 always distinguish among them, or read 

 off, without shadow of doubt every 

 W^illow's ancestry. It must suffice for 

 us if we regard only certain broad 

 characteristics and groupings of the Wil- 

 low tribe, noting the more obvious dis- 

 tinctions, and holding all besides in 

 more or less doubt. 



Those Willows which grow into trees of 

 size are the White Willow, the Crack 

 ^^'illow, and the \A^eeping Willow. Added 

 to these as occasionals are the Almond- 

 leaved and the Bay-leaved WiUows. The 

 Goat Willow, or Sallow, is also found as 

 a small tree, but more often as a large 

 bush, or as a hedgerow shrub. Other 

 Willows grow naturally, or are grown 

 artificially, as Osiers ; whilst others, 

 chiefly found at high altitudes, have, 

 as has been mentioned, a dwarf and 



