Among us, the European Basket willow is extensively cultivated, and very large plantations are to be seen in the low grounds of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The wood of some of the tree willows, and particularly that of the Yellow willow, and the Shining willow (S. lucida), is greatly used in making charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder. It is almost unnecessary to say that all the willows grow readily from slips or truncheons planted in the ground. So tenacious of life are they, that examples are known where small trees have been taken up and completely inverted, by planting the branches and leaving the roots exposed, which have nevertheless thrown out new roots from the former tops, and the roots becoming branches, the tree grew again with its ordinary vigor.
