Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/634

WILLOW. trees are often treated as pollards and grown in copses, because they stand cutting remarkably "well, and the steins are viseful for many purposes, such as hoops, poles^ fuel, etc. The leaves and young shoots are in some countries used as food for cattle, and even dried and stacked for that use. A fragrant -water is distilled in Northern India from the catkins of the Eg-ptian or caliph willow {iSalix (Egyptiaca) . The flowers of the -willow, which in many species appear before the leaves, are much sought after by bees. The male catkins of many species are very beautiful, the prominent anthers being yellow, or in Salix pur- purea of a rich purple. The weeping willow (Salia; Babylonica) is a very ornamental species, a native of the East, now much planted in Amer- ica and on the Continent of Europe, on account of its beautiful pendant twigs. (See Weeping Teee. ) The so-called Napoleon's willow is a variety of it. The white willow or Huntingdon willow iSalix alba) is far the largest species known in America. It grows with great rapidity to a height of 80 feet. Its head is much branched and spreading, its leaves narrow, elliptical-lance- olate, silky beneath, and sometimes also above. The popular name sallow is given to a number of species, among them the gray sallow {Salix ciiierea), the round leaved sallow {Salix Caprea) , the round-eared sallow (Halix aurita), and the long-leaved sallow (Salix grandifolia). These are common British species. They are not as jiliable as the osier willow.s, but are used for hoops, implements, etc. At least half of the known species of willow occur in the t'nited States. Among the best known are the black willow (8alix nigra), a tree 30 to 50 feet high, and Salix cordata and Salix lucida, shrubs or small trees along streams from New England west and north. See plate of Flowers. WILLOW GKOUSE. See PT.R3nG.x.

WILLOW INSECTS. In Europe 386 species of insects feed upon the various willows; in the United States Packard records 223, but this list must be largely increased. Many species which attack poplar, especially lepidopterous larvae, at- tack the willows. The American cimbex (dm- hex Americana), the largest of the native saw- flies, lays its eggs in the leaves and the larvse sometimes cause excessive defoliation. Among other sawflies dependent upon these trees, yema- tus ventralis, whose yellow-spotted black larva is the 'yellow-spotted willow-shig,' is especially injurious. There are at least five generations annually, and the insect frequently nniltiplies excessively, sometimes menacing the willow-ware industry through its destruction of the osier willow. The willow-shoot hortitail (Phylloocus inlcyer) lays its eggs in the twigs and the larva; burrow in the terminal shoots, causing them to wilt. The wilting is begun by the mother insect, which girdles the twigs below the place where the egg is laid. The cocoon is spun within tlie burrow and the larva remains in it tlirougli the winter, changing to pupa in the early spring. Several leaf-beetles attack the foliage, and the larva; of two longicom beetles (Xt/lolrcchiis an- nanus and Pofionoclieriis mixtus) bore in the wood. A number of plant-lice affect the leaves and twigs; several species of scale insects are found upon the hark; and two gall-mites pro- duce excreseenccs upon the leaves. Consult Packard, Insects Injurious to Forest Trees (Washington, ISOO).

WILLOW WARBLER. See WARnLER.

WILLS, WiLLi.iM GoKii.N (1830-91). A British playwright and painter. He was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, and .studied at Trinity College, Dublin. His early life ^vas divided be- tween painting and story-writing. About 18G8 he established himself as a portrait painter in Loudon and attained a considerable reputation, while he was noted for the Bohemian eccentrici- ties of his life. He began play-writing about 1SG.1, and among his dramatic works are: The Man o' Airlie (18G7); Charles I. (1872), in which Henry Irving secured one of his early triumphs; Eugene Aram (1873); Marie Stuart (1874); Olivia (1878), based on The Vicar of Wakefield, and a great success; Nell Gwynne (1878); Faust, as produced at the Lyceum (188.5) ; and A Roi/al Diroree (1891). He died in London. Consult: Freeman Wills, IT'. G. Wills, Dramatist and Painter (London, 1898) ; Archer, English Dramatists of To-Day (London, 1882) ; Cook, yights at the Play (London, 1883).

WILLS,. William Hexry (1810-80). An English writer, born at Plymouth. He was one of the original liteiary stalf of Punch (q.v.), to which he contributed dramatic criticisms and much witty verse. In 1846 he became a sib- editor of the London Daily yens, under the management of Charles Dickens. He was also made assistant editor of Household Words (1849) and of AH the Year Round (1859). He was a lifelong friend of Dickens. His chief pub- lication was Old Leaves Gathered from House- hold Words (1860). Among his contributions to Punch were a Xatural History of Courtship and Comic Mythology.

WILLS, William John (18.34-01). An Aus- tralian explorer, born at Totnes, in Devon.shire, England. He studied medicine in London, and then in 1852 emigrated with his brother to Vic- toria, where he worked for a time as a shepherd. Three years later he became a surveyor of Cruwn lands, and in 1860 was appointed third in com- mand of an expedition sent out under Robert O'Hara Burke (q.v.) to discover a route to the north across Australia. Soon after the expedi- tion started. Wills was made second in conmiand, and on February 12, ISfil, he and Burke suc- ceeded in rcacliing tidal water on the Flinders River. They (lien turned back, but on the return journey both died of starvation' near Cooper's Creek, and only oiu^ man succeeded in getting back to the settlements. The bodies of the two leaders were recovered and were given a public funer:il in 1863. A national memorial to them was erected at Melbourne in front of the Parlia- ment House. Consult: Will's Successful Ex- ploration Through the Interior of .lustialia, con- sisting of Will's recovered journal edited bv his father (London, 1863) ; anil Howitt, History of Discorery in .Australia (London, 1865).

WILL'S COFFEE HOUSE, A famous resort of the 'wits' during (Jurcnne's reign, situated on the corner of I?ow and liussell Streets, London. Dryden's corner in it is celi>bratcd in literary history, and it was also the resort of Wycherley and Waller, who lived on Bow Street, near by. It was so called from the first name of its original jiroprietor and was succeedeil by Hutlon's.