192 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
from the forester’s point of view. But they 
have the great advantage of finding congenial 
soil and situation along the sides of ponds or 
fringing streams and waterways, in places which 
are somewhat too moist for hardwoods. The crack 
and Bedford willows are rather apt to be broken 
by high winds, and all of them thrive best in 
sheltered positions, while the first-named often 
becomes ‘stag-headed’ and dry in the crown when 
grown in an uncongenial situation. With these 
exceptions the willows grow rapidly, soon attain- 
ing large dimensions, on most soils that are not 
too light and dry, though they of course thrive 
best and develop most energetically on deep, 
loamy, or sandy marshlands and riverine stretches. 
Here they form beautiful objects in the landscape, 
whether pollarded—especially the white willow, 
which pollards best—or allowed to grow up to 
their full maturity as trees. But there are many 
marshy places, overgrown with sedge and tus- 
socks of coarse rank grass, offering but a poor 
pasturage at best, which might be profitably 
planted up. For such places, unless they can be 
drained to form better pasture or bear more pro- 
fitable crops of timber, Evelyn’s shrewd, common- 
