232 



commonly, from different ones. 

 Their florets are almost inva- 

 riably separated, being all barren 

 on one plant, and fertile in ano- 

 ther, of the same species. 



The importance of the willow to man has 

 been recognised from the earliest ages. The 

 Romans used twigs for binding their vines, and 

 tying their reeds and bundles. The British 

 coracles (boats) were constructed of them, 

 covered with leather; and shields, similarly 

 covered, were used in war. Huts were con- 

 structed of them. The uses of willows are 

 almost innumerable. The longer shoots and 

 branches are made into poles for fencing, hop- 

 poles, props for vines, and, when forked at one 

 end, into props for clothes lines. They are also 

 used for the handles of hay-rakes, and other 

 implements ; they are also split and made into 

 hurdles, crates, hampers, and, interwoven with 

 the smaller branches, into racks, or cradles for 

 the hay and straw given to cattle in the fields, 

 or in feeding yards. The smaller rods, with or 

 without the bark on, are manufactured into 

 various kinds of baskets, for domestic use ; and 

 split into two or more pieces, are used for fancy 

 baskets. Hats are manufactured from shavings 

 of the wood, and there is a kind of stuff, made 

 of thin willow slips, used for the shapes of 

 bonnets. 



The downy substance which grows on their 

 beautiful catkins is used occasionally as a 

 substitute for cotton, in stuffing mattresses, 

 chair cushions, and for other similar purposes. 

 In many parts of Germany it is collected for 

 making wadding for lining ladies' winter dresses ; 

 and a coarse paper may be made from it. The 

 shoots of willows, of certain vigorous-growing 

 kinds, when cut down to the ground, produce, 

 in two years, rods which admit of being split in 

 two for hoops of barrels ; while others, in one 

 year, produce shoots more or less robust, and 

 of different degrees of length, which are used 

 for all the different kinds of basket making. 

 The top of willows, and all the branches or old 

 trunks which can be applied to no other useful 

 purpose, make a most agreeable fuel, producing, 

 when dry, a clear fire with little smoke. Willow 

 wood was formerly applied principally in the 

 manufacture of charcoal, both for smelting iron, 

 and for gunpowder ; but, for the former pur- 

 pose, it has long given way to the coke of 

 mineral coal. It is still employed in the manu- 

 facture of gunpowder, and is esteemed by artists 

 for their crayons.* 



The weeping willow is a very 

 picturesque tree. The light airy 

 spray of the poplar rises per- 

 pendicularly ; that of the weep- 

 ing willow is pendent. The 

 shape of its leaf is conformable 

 to the pensile character of the 

 tree ; and its spray, which is 



* Loudon's Trees and Shrub*. 



lighter than that of the poplar, 

 is more easily put in motion by 

 a breath' of air. The weeping 

 willow, too, has its special asso- 

 ciations. It does not serve to 

 screen the broken buttresses and 

 Gothic windows of an abbey, 

 nor to overshadow the battle- 

 ments of a ruined castle. These 

 offices it resigns to the oak. 

 The weeping willow seeks an 

 humbler scene, from some ro- 

 mantic footbridge, which it half 

 conceals, or some glassy pool, 

 over which it throws a streaming 

 bliage — 



— " And dips 



Its pendent boughs, stooping as if to drink."* 



1 



620. 



The lime, 1, is an elegant tree, 

 found wild in woods and grassy 

 declivities. There are only two 

 well established varieties — the 

 European and the American. 

 The leaves, 2, are simple, cordate, 

 serrated, and there is a remark- 

 able bractea, 3, or abnormal leaf 

 attached to the peduncle of each 

 of the stems of the flowers, 4. 



» Gilpin's Forest Heenery. 



