I have but little doubt that the seed of four of
them that grow along the railroad causeway
was blown from the river meadows, namely,
Salix pedioellaris, lucida, Torreyana, and petio-
laris.
The barren and fertile flowers are usually on



EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 119

Beparate plants. The greater part of the white
willows set out on our causeways are sterile
only. You can easily distinguish the fertile
ones at a distance when the pods are bursting.
It is said that no sterile weeping willows have
been introduced into this country, so that it
cannot be raised from the seed. Of two of the
indigenous willows common along the bank of
our river I have detected but one sex.
The seeds of the willow thus annually fill
the air with their lint, being wafted to all parts
of the country, and though apparently not more
than one in many millions gets to be a shrub,
yet so lavish and persevering is nature that her
purpose is completely answered.
March 12, 1842. Consider what a difference
there is between living and dying. To die is
not to begin to die and continue, it is not a state
of continuance, but of transientness ; whereas
to live is a condition of continuance, and does
not mean to be born merely. There is no con-
tinuance of death. It is a transient phenome-
non. Nature presents nothing in a state of
ieath.
March 12, 1852. According to Linnaeus very
many plants become perennial and arborescent
in warm regions which with us are annual, for
duration often depends more on the locality
than on the plant. So is it with men. Under



120 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS.
