208 THE BOOK OF FORESTRY 
WILLOWS 
The willow family is the most widely distributed of 
all the trees which inhabit the Northern Hemisphere. 
It extends from the Arctic circle to the equator and 1s 
found in both the Old and New Worlds. The wood 
is soft, light and tough, but usually of little durability 
or strength. 
The wood of willow warps considerably and while it 
furnishes a charcoal valuable in the manufacture of 
gunpowder it is of little importance in the lumber in- 
dustry. The use of willow osiers for basket-making is 
growing in importance and in some parts of the country 
they are raised artificially in plantations called “willow 
holts.” There are twenty-five willows of tree size in 
the United States and about fifty-four shrubs. Many 
foreign species, like the white willow, have been intro- 
duced from Europe and have become wild. At present 
as far as numbers are concerned the foreign willows 
are more important than the native species. The 
weeping willow, an introduced species, is often used for 
ornamental planting. Most of the American species are 
confined to low moist ground or to high elevations, As 
a family they are of little importance and no special 
effort is made to tell one kind from another. 
