42 



only a few feet, or even inches, in height. Some of the larger species which grow in less 

 vigorous situations are trees of considerable size. About fifteen species are recorded from 

 Ontario, including those which are planted as ornamental varieties. 



Although the wood of the willow is soft, it is smooth and light and is adapted for a 

 variety of purposes, such as making toys, handles of tools, cricket bats, etc. It also fur- 

 nishes charcoal which is largely employed in the manufacture of gunpowder. The bark 

 of many species is rick in tannin and also furnishes the crystalline substance called sali- 

 cin, which forms the basis of the salicylic acid so largely employed in the treatment of 

 rheumatism and gout, and as a tonic and febrifuge. 



Some species, known as osiers, are largely used in basket making, and of late years the 

 manufacture of household furniture — chairs, tables, baby-carriages, etc. — has become very 

 important. Large quantities of osiers for such work are annually imported by America, 

 which might without difficulty be grown at home. 



In the Western States willows are largely employed for hedges and windbreaks, and 

 they should be similarly used by the settlers in our North- West prairie lands. They are 

 quick growers and can be easily propagated, and would be found of far more value than 

 many of the trees and shrubs which are now being planted. 



Some of the ornamental varieties, such as the Babylonian, or Weeping Willow, are 

 widely grown, and form a decided addition to our list of trees for lawn planting, etc. 



Hymenoptera. 



The flowering of the various willows is one of the earliest visible signs that at last 

 the long winter is ended, and that the warmer breath of gentle spring is re-awaking 

 plant and insect life and quickening the pulses of all nature. Now to the opening pendu- 

 lous spikes of bloom swarm various kinds of bees to sip the honey and to roll and revel in 

 the golden pollen so abundantly produced, until they are themselves so bepowdered, and 

 gilded as to be hardly recognizable. How they rejoice in the bountiful supply of this rich 

 food, and how industriously they labor through the shining hours of the long spring days 

 to transport the honied mixture to the holes and crannies where their prospective 

 progeny are to lazily surfeit themselves with the good things so bountifully pro- 

 vided by the mother insects. In the warm days of late April and early May the air in 

 the vicinity of willows is murmurous with the whirr of tiny wings, as the busy hosts 

 come and go in endless and rapid succession. The majority belong to the genera Andrena 

 and Halictus, small dark bees, more or less pubescent, those of the latter genus having 

 sometimes the abdomen belted with bands of silvery white hairs. There are also numerous 

 representatives of the genus Osmia ; small green or bluish bees, having a brush of stiff 

 hairs beneath the abdomen for the collection of the pollen. We also find abundantly, 

 pretty little red bees more or less marked with yellow, which belong to the genus Nomada 

 and differ from the preceding species in having no provision for the transportation of 

 food, and in being parasitic in their habits. 



I will not take up space by giving a catalogue of the various species, as this paper 

 is intended chiefly to enumerate the foes, not the friends of the willows, and to the latter 

 class the bees fortunately belong. As we all know, the flowers of these trees are diacious, 

 that is, the male and female flowers are borne upon separate plants, and fertilization 

 depends upon the agency of the wind or upon that of insects. In this work of fertiliza- 

 tion the bees play an important part, as they fly all pollen-coated from tree to tree. 



Saw-flies. (Tenthredinidce.) 



Turning from the industrious and useful bees we find another section of Hymen" 



optera, the larva' of which feed upon the tissues of plants, and which has consequently 



called Phytophaga, from the two Greek words phyton, a plant, and phago, to eat. 



The name commonly applied to these forms is " Saw-fly," from the ovipositor of the 



female being modified into a saw-like instrument with which to slit the hard tissues of 



