THE COMMON WILLOW. 439 



RAMIFICATION. 



Willow branches ramify quickly into a large number of long, 

 pliant twigs, curved and slender. The true terminal bud is abortive, 

 nor, as in the case of the Ash, does the twig produced from the 

 next bud take the place of the terminal shoot. Instead of this, it 

 leads off abruptly irom it. The bud next helow on the stem also 

 often fails, or the twig it produces may be lost, for the branches 

 of the Willow are unusually brittle at the points of junction. The 

 general result of these various processes is a series of curves, first in 

 one direction, then in another, varied by sharp turns almost at right 

 angles. When the twigs which tend in one direction are continuously 

 developed, while those tending in the opposite direction are succes- 

 sively lost, or but partially developed, the long decorative curves which 

 often characterise the tree are produced. 



In young trees the angle between branch and stem is much 

 more acute than in older trees, and the shoot produced from the 

 bud next below the apex, unlike those already described, does take 

 the place of a terminal shoot. The explanation of this apparent 

 anomaly is very simple. The sunlight falls directly on to the shoot 

 unimpeded by any intertwining boughs, and it is consequently forced 

 upwards. When the shoot has taken its course, the resulting stem 

 bears the mark in one of those kinks that prevent stiffness in the 

 line. The long slender lines of the young tree are sometimes solely 

 due to its rapid growth, sometimes to the use of artifice when it is 

 first planted. Willow poles of considerable length are set like flower- 

 slips ; all side branches are removed, and their place is soon filled 

 by numerous adventitious shoots, which spring to light all over the 

 young stems. The hranchlets and shoots arc smooth, and the latter, 

 in some varieties, polished. The hark on the larger boughs and 



