The _bark_ is deeply divided into broad flat ridges, often becoming shaggy. The twigs, brittle at the base, are glabrous or pubescent, bright red-brown becoming darker with age. The _winter buds_ are 1/8 inch long, covered with a single smooth scale. The _wood_ is soft, light, close-grained, light brown and weak. It is often used in the manufacture of artificial limbs. The alternate simple _leaves_ are 3 to 6 inches long, and one-half inch wide on very short petioles; the tips are much tapered and the margins are finely toothed. They are bright green on both sides, turning pale yellow in the early autumn. The _flowers_ are in catkins, appearing with the leaves, borne on separate trees. The staminate flowers of the black willow have 3 to 5 stamens each, while the white willow has flowers with 2 stamens. The native peach-leaved willow, _Salix amygdaloides_ Anders., is a smaller tree with leaves 2 to 6 inches long, 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches wide, light green and shining above, pale and glaucous beneath, on petioles about 3/4 inch long. The white willow, _Salix alba_ L., and the crack willow, _Salix fragilis_ L., with bright yellow twigs, are European species which are often planted for ornamental purposes. Their flowers have only 2 stamens each and their leaves are silky, bright green above and glaucous beneath. The latter has twigs that are very brittle at the base. Another European species is the weeping willow, _Salix babylonica_ L., which may be known by its slender drooping branches. +BLACK WALNUT+ _Juglans nigra_ L. [Illustration: BLACK WALNUT Leaf, one-fifth natural size. Twig, three-quarters natural size.] THIS valuable forest tree occurs on rich bottom lands and on moist fertile hillsides throughout the State. The black walnut is found from Massachusetts westward to Minnesota and southward to Florida and Texas. In the forest, where it grows singly, it frequently attains a height of 100 feet with a straight stem, clear of branches for half its height. In open-grown trees, the stem is short and the crown broad and spreading. The _bark_ is thick, dark brown in color, and divided by rather deep fissures into rounded ridges. The twigs have cream-colored chambered pith and leaf-scars without downy pads above. The _leaves_ are alternate, compound, 1 to 2 feet long, consisting of from 15 to 23 leaflets of yellowish-green color. The leaflets are about 3 inches long, extremely tapering at the end and toothed along the margin. The _fruit_ is a nut, borne singly or in pairs, and enclosed in a solid green husk which does not split open, even after the nut is ripe. The nut itself is black with a very hard, thick, finely ridged shell, enclosing a rich, oily kernel edible and highly nutritious.