EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 119 
separate plants. The greater part of the white 
willows set out on our causeways are sterile 
only. You can easily distinguish the fertile 
ones at a distance when the pods are bursting. 
It is said that no sterile weeping willows have 
been introduced into this country, so that it 
cannot be raised from the seed. Of two of the 
indigenous willows common along the bank of 
our river I have detected but one sex. 
The seeds of the willow thus annually fill 
the air with their lint, being wafted to all parts 
of the country, and though apparently not more 
than one in many millions gets to be a shrub, 
yet so lavish and persevering is nature that her 
purpose is completely answered. 
March 12, 1842. Consider what a difference 
there is between living and dying. To die is 
not to begin to die and continue , it is not a state 
of continuance, but of transientness ; whereas 
to live is a condition of continuance, and does 
not mean to be born merely. There is no con¬ 
tinuance of death. It is a transient phenome¬ 
non. Nature presents nothing in a state of 
death. 
March 12, 1852. According to Linnseus very 
many plants become perennial and arborescent 
in warm regions which with us are annual, for 
duration often depends more on the locality 
than on the plant. So is it with men. Under 
