SALiciNE.E (Skan). 575 



free or connate ; anthers ovate or oblong, affixed at the base or at 

 the back near the base; cells 2, distinct, parallel, dehiscing longi- 

 tudinally; rudiment of the ovary 0. Female flowers: ovary sessile 

 or shortly stalked, 1 -celled ; placentas 2-4, parietal; style short 

 or ; stigmas 2-4, rather thick, emarginate or 2-fid and lobed ; 

 ovules 2 to many, in 2 to many series, ascending, anatropous. Cap- 

 sule ovoid or lanceolate, 2-4-valved. Seeds few or many, small or 

 minute, each with numerous long silky hairs arising from the 

 funicle; testa very thin; albumen 0; cotyledons plano-convex; 

 radicle short, inferior. 



Trees or shrubs ; leaves alternate, entire, toothed or sometimes lobed, nearl}- 

 always deciduous ; stipules free, small^ scale-like and deciduoias or larger, leafy, 

 and persistent ; flowers in catkins ; catkins axillary and se-^sile or terminating 

 short branches, appearing before or with the leaves, pendulous or erect, often 

 silky-villous ; bracts membranous, caducous or sometimes in the female catkins 

 persisting till the ripening of the fruits. 



r 



DisTRiB. Genera 2 and species about 210, widely dispersed in the Arctic, 

 Temperate and Tropical Regions of both hemispheres, most frequent in Europe, 

 Temperate Asia and North America, usually on the banks of streams or in moist 

 places, sometimes in Alpine Regions ; absent from Australasia and the Pacific 

 Islands. Salix alone is indigenous in South Africa, but according to Marloth 

 {Fl. S. Afr. i. 130) Populus canescens. Smith, and P. nigra^ Linn., var. 

 pj/mmidalis, Spach, are well acclimatised there. F. canescens has been met \vith 

 in the Transvaal (Burtt-Davy, 188). 



I, SALIX, Linn. 



Floivers dioecious. Disc of very small fleshy gland-like scales. 

 Male flowers: Stamens 2-8 or sometimes up to 12; filaments fili- 

 form j free or rarely more or less connate; anthers ovate, usually 

 small. Female flowers : Ovary sessile or shortly stalked, 1-celIed ; 

 placentas 2 ; style often short or none ; stigmas 2, retuse or 2-fid. 

 Ovules usually 4-8 on each placenta, 2-seriate. Capsule 2-valved. 



Seeds of the order. 



Trees or shrubs ; leaves alternate, entire or toothed, pinnately veined, often 

 narrow ; stipules free, small and deciduous or larger leafy and persistent ; flowers 

 in catkins ; catkins usually dense and erect, axillary and sessile or terminating 

 short branches, appearing before or with the leaves ; bracts small, entire or rarely 



toothed. 



DisTRiB. Species 180-190, with the range of the order. 



S. frag'diB, Linn., appears to have been introduced into the Cape Peninsula. A 

 specimen (no. 2517) without catkins, apparently correctly named, was collected 

 by Wolley-Dod at Orange Kloof. 



A specimen from the Cape(Ecklon ? 711 in Herb. Horn.) has been identified by 

 Fries (Nov. Fl. Suec. Mant. i. 77) with *S'. australis, Hildenb.and Boj. I Buspect> 

 that it is the closely allied S, capensis. 



