Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/669

 WILLOUGHBY seminary, to which he gave about $270,000 and bequeathed about $600,000 more. He en dowed two professorships at Ainherst in 184 -'7, and gave that college in all about $150,00( He thrice erected a church at Easthampton which was thrice burned. His gifts and be quests amounted to more than $1,500,000 WILLOUGHBY, Sir Hngh, an English explorer born at Risby, Derbyshire, perished either a sea or on some portion of the arctic coast in the north of Finmark about January, 1554 In 1553 the merchants of London fitted out an exploring expedition, and invested him wit] the authority of admiral of their fleet of thre vessels: the Bona Speranza, of 120 tons, S Hugh's ship ; the Edward Bonaventura, of 160 tons; and the Bona Confidentia, of 90 tons the whole carrying 136 persons, of whom 1 were merchants concerned in the venture. It was destined "for the discovery of regions dominions, islands, and places unknown," but forming a part of the country claimed under Sebastian Cabot's discoveries. It sailed from Deptford May 10, 1553, but on July 30 the vessels were scattered by a storm, and they were detained on the coast for two months. The Bona Speranza and Bona Confidentia put into the harbor of Arzina in Lapland, where the crews and passengers all perished. The Bonaventura was wrecked, and a few of the seamen reached Archangel. Repeated expe- ditions searched for these ships, but brought meagre information of them, though a will of Gabriel Willoughby, a kinsman of Sir Hugh, attested by the latter as witness, was obtained from the Russians some years later, dated in January, 1554. WILLOW (supposed to be from A. S. wilig, pliancy), the name of shrubs or trees of the genus salix (the ancient Latin name). Some willows are in England, and to some extent in our nurseries, called sallows (A. S. sal or seel, a strap or tie), in French saule. This genus and the poplar (populus) make up the family salicacece. The willows vary in size from alpine species an inch or two high to trees of 50 to 80 ft. ; they have generally lithe and slender branches ; the leaves, usually long and pointed, are alternate, entire or serrate, with decidu- ous or persistent and often very conspicuous stipules. The flowers are dioecious, in cylin- drical, often silky catkins, appearing before or with the leaves; the scales in both kinds of catkins entire; the sterile flowers have two (rarely three to ten) stamens, with one or two small glands at the base ; the pistillate flowers have a single sessile or stalked ovary with a gland at its base ; stigmas two, often two-lobed ; the one-celled ovary ripening into a conical capsule opening by two valves, and liberating several small, silky-tufted seeds. The willows are widely distributed from the tropics to the arctic regions, ascending mountains to the limit of vegetation, but in low countries chief- ly inhabiting wet localities ; they are not found in Australia. The number of species is very WILLOW 645 doubtful, as few genera present so many diffi- culties to the botanist; the leaves vary in the Xrth^fl 68 ' aDd 5 te u n d not a PP ear UI ^ after the flowers, and the staminate and pistil- late flowers must be gathered before the leaves appear or when these are quite young and later specimens must be taken from the same plants with mature leaves and fruit; hence in lost cases four specimens are required to rep- resent a species, and as a consequence herbaria usually present a confused lot of incomplete specimens; besides these difficulties, the eame species grown upon mountains appears differ- ent in the lowlands, and it is eaid that the species hybridize in the wild state to produce intermediate forms. Only the few important species will be mentioned here, and these are sufficiently well defined; the majority are of interest only to the botanist. Even in the lim- Willow- Staminate and Pistillate Flowers. 1. Staminato Catkin. 2. Staininate Flower. 8. Pistillate Catkin. 4. Pistillate Flower. ted territory of Great Britain, there is much disagreement as to the number of species, some )otanists making 58, while others reduce the number to 15. Prof. Andersson of Stockholm, Sweden, who has given special attention to ipecies in a memoir published in the " Pro- seedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences" (1858); he enumerates 59 spe- ies, of which only 10 are peculiar to America; 2 are identical with European species, and a >art of them introduced; the remainder are early identical with or analogous to those of lurope or of European types. The trees have i remarkably rapid growth ; some species are ery ornamental, while others are planted for heir usefulness as wind-breaks and to resist he encroachments of streams ; the roots are arge and abundant, and in moist places run to great distance and bind the soil with their umerous fibres ; they grow readily from cut- ings, which is the usual method of propa- ation, except for some ornamental varieties,
 * he willows, described the North American