WILLOWS AND POPLARS 



Flexible and seemingly delicate as the little 

 tree is when but just established, there is small 

 promise of the rugged and sturdy trunk that 

 in a few years may stand where the chance 

 twig lodged. And the color of the willows — 

 ah ! there's a point for full enthusiasm, for this 

 family of grief furnishes a cheerful note for 

 every month in the year, and runs the whole 

 scale of greens, grays, yellows and browns, and 

 even adds to the winter landscape touches of 

 blazing orange and bright red across the snow. 

 Before ever one has thought seriously of the 

 coming of spring, the long branchlets of the 

 weeping willow have quickened into a hint of 

 lovely yellowish green, and those same branch- 

 lets will be holding their green leaves against 

 a wintry blast when most other trees have given 

 up their foliage under the frost's urgency. Often 

 have the orange -yellow twigs of the golden 

 osier illumined a somber country-side for me 

 as I looked from the car window ; and close 

 by may be seen other willow bushes of brown, 

 green, gray, and even purple, to add to the 

 color compensation of the season. Then may 

 come into the view, as one flies past, a great 



lOI 



