GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH THE TREES 



of like ideals, hastening to this tree and plant 

 paradise. A mass of soft yellow drew us from 

 the highway across a field carpeted thickly 

 with bluet or "quaker lady," to the edge of 

 the stream, where a continuous hum showed 

 that the bees were also attracted. It was one 

 splendid willow in full bloom, and I could not 

 and as yet cannot safely say whether it is the 

 crack willow or the white willow ; but I can 

 affirm of a certainty that it was a delight to 

 the eye, the mind and the nostrils. The 

 extreme fragility of the smaller twigs, which 

 broke away from the larger limbs at the 

 lightest shake or jar, gave evidence of one of 

 Nature's ways of distributing plant life ; for it 

 seems that these twigs, as 1 have previously 

 said, part company with the parent tree most 

 readily, float away on the stream, and easily 

 establish themselves on banks and bars, where 

 their tough, interlacing roots soon form an 

 almost impregnable barrier to the onslaught of 

 the flood. Only a stone's throw away there 

 stood a great old black willow, with a sturdy 

 trunk of ebon hue, crowned with a mass of 

 soft green leafage, lighter where the breeze 



no 



