Under these trees, we shall find a good many fresh twigs. Reaching up to break one, we find that it snaps off short at the base. It is not brittle along its whole length. Try a dozen twigs, and off they snap, almost at a touch. The wind has broken off those that fell to the ground. Some that fall in the water, float away down stream. They catch on sandbars, and strike root. Some swing in to the shore, and grow on the banks.
We have discovered a habit of certain kinds of willow trees. The shedding of their twigs at the season when they are fullest of life is the tree's method of colonising new territory. These twigs float away, and blow away, and those which lodge in wet ground before they dry are almost sure to grow. The billowy acres of green which cover sandbars and stream bor ders are willow trees, children of parents that grow far up stream.
Along roadsides in this country a large willow is much planted, whose leaves are pale beneath, so that they look very cheerful and cool in mid summer. The most striking thing about these willows is that their twigs are yellow as ducks' feet, and particularly bright in early spring. The older trees grow very stout, and great branches leave the trunk close to the ground. This is the golden osier willow, one form of the white wil low of Europe, which does not grow vigorously in this country.
The weeping willows, whose long, supple branches sweep out and downward, sometimes yards in length, from the tree top, came origi nally from Babylon. Who were they in that far country who " hung their harps on the willow trees "? A great many weeping willows in the Eastern states are said to be sprung from the parent tree, which grew on the Island of St. Helena. What famous prisoner probably sat under the shadows of this willow tree, and dreamed again of conquering the world? The weeping willow has the habit of snapping its twigs off, short, at the base. One of these long
withes, cut into bits with one or two buds on each cutting, will start as many' weeping willow trees, if the bits are stuck into wet sand and kept wet until rooted, and then set out and given plenty of water until they become established in the ground.
The black willow is named for the black bark of the old tree. It is the only one of the narrow leaved willows whose leaves are uniformly green on both sides. These leaves are often curved like a sickle. At the base of each leaf is a pair of heart-shaped, leafy blades, called stipules. Many trees have stipules that come out with the leaves, and are dropped off, but these persist, as a rule, all summer. The black willow is one of those with the twigs that snap. It takes pos session of stream borders, and its offspring may cover miles of new territory in a single season.
The balsam willow we shall know by the fra grant coating of wax, or balsam, on its young shoots and buds. Its broad leaves are blunt at the tip, and look scarcely willow-like, but the tree is known by its buds and its catkins. To find it we shall have to go into the boggy regions in the Northern tier of states, where it is numer ous, but never more than a shrubby tree.
One use is served by no tree as well as a willow. When the sap rises in spring, the willow branches are in prime condition to make whistles. I wonder if there is a boy, in town or country, who does not know how to make a willow whistle that will " go " ? Surely not, unless his supply of uncles and grandfathers is short. You can not make a willow whistle by following printed directions. Some skilful person, who has been a boy, must show you, and one lesson is enough.