Entwives

Treebeard raised the Entwives with the hobbits himself, and the way he did it says most of what is known: he asked whether they ever saw any Ents in the Shire — 'well, not Ents, Entwives I should really say' — because the Entwives would like that country. The Ents have had no Entings for a terrible long count of years, and none have died from inside; some have fallen in the evil chances of the long years, and more have grown tree-ish. The reason is that the Ents lost the Entwives. Treebeard is exact about the word: they did not die, he never said died — they were lost, and cannot be found. The search the Ents made for them became the matter of songs, sung by Elves and by Men alike from Mirkwood down to Gondor, and he supposed most folk knew the story.