From the February 27, 1932, issue
By Science News
PUSSY WILLOW
Florists shops have long been offering big, beautiful, and expensive wands of pussy willows. But now the willow trees and bushes out of doors are putting forth their own offerings: smaller catkins, perhaps, but with the authentic tang of the wild about them. Harmless, charming, furry wild kittens, beloved of children everywhere!
Pussy willows have serious work in the world, however. They are the flower clusters of the willow, and it is their business to attend to the exchange of pollen. After fertilization is thus brought about, the seeds of the willows are launched on little cottony parachutes, much like those of cottonwood but less woolly and hence less troublesome.