28 THE WILLOW. 



sight of their green rows fills him with new animation, 

 as they indicate the presence of water as well as cooling 

 shade. The same comely rows are seen skirting the 

 pools and watercourses of our pastoral hills and arable 

 meadows. They are planted also by the sides of streams 

 'and canals, where they serve, by their long and nu- 

 merous roots, to consolidate the banks, and by their, 

 leaves and branches afford shelter to cattle. These Wil- 

 lows are among the fairest ornaments of the landscape in 

 Massachusetts just after the elm and red maple have put 

 forth their flowers. And so lively is their appearance, 

 with their light green foliage, that when we meet with a 

 group of them in the turn of a road on a cloudy day, we 

 seem to be greeted with a sudden gleam of sunshine. 



The Willow is one of the few trees which have been 

 transplanted from Europe to our own soil without being 

 either equalled or surpassed by some American tree of 

 kindred species. But there is no indigenous Willow ia 

 any part of the American continent that will bear com- 

 parison in size and in those general qualities which we 

 admire in trees, either with the Weeping Willow or the 

 common yellow Willow. The latter is as frequent in 

 our land as any one of our native trees, except in the 

 forest. It attains a considerable height and great dimen- 

 sions, seldom forming a single trunk, but sending upward 

 from the ground, or from a very short bole, three or four 

 diverging branches, so as to resemble an immense shrub. 

 This mode of growth is caused perhaps by our way of 

 planting it, — by inserting into the ground cuttings which 

 have no leading shoot. Indeed, aU these WUlows are pol- 

 lards. Not one of the species is foimd in our forest, ex- 

 cept where it has spread over land that has once been 

 cleared and cultivated. In that case, we find mixed with 

 the forest trees Willows, apple-trees, and lilacs, which 

 were planted there before the tract was restored to na- 



