272 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



seasons. Flowers May 18th ; capsules ripe June 18th." — Sali- 

 ces Am. 



Michaux says this is the most common of American willows, 

 that it is multiplied particularly in the Middle and Western 

 States, and is found along the banks of the large rivers. He found 

 it sometimes thirty or thirty-five feet high and twelve or fifteen 

 inches in diameter. " Upon the trunk the bark is grayish, and 

 finely chapt ; upon the roots it is of a dark brown, whence may 

 have been derived the specific name of the tree. The roots afford 

 an intensely bitter decoction, which is considered in the country 

 a purifier of the blood, and a preventive and remedy for 

 intermittent fevers."* 



Sp. 17. Pursh's Willow. & Purshiana. Sprengel. 



The leaves are figured as those of the Champlain willow, by Michaux, Sylva, 



III, Plate 125, figure 2. 



Leaves very long, linear-lanceolate, often falcate, gradually tapering above 

 to an extremely long, slender acumination, acute or somewhat rounded at base, 

 closely serrate, of a uniform green on both surfaces, and smooth, the younger 

 leaves, particularly on the mid-rib, silky ; stipules large, broad-lunate or reni- 

 form-cordate, serrate, often deflexed ; female aments rather long, many-flow- 

 ered, somewhat lax; scales deciduous; ovaries ovate, acuminate, stalked, 

 smooth ; style very short ; stigmas slightly notched ; twigs at first silky, soon 

 very smooth. — Darlington, 560; <S. falcata. Hooker, Fl. Bor. Am., II, 149. 

 Pursh, II, 614. 



This species has a strong resemblance to the last, but may be 

 distinguished by the very long, falcate leaves, and large cor- 

 date or broad-lunate, usually persistent stipules. 



Pursh's willow is a slender tree, growing on the banks of 

 streams and lakes, in situations sometimes overflown, conspicu- 

 ous for its remarkably soft and delicate foliage and graceful 

 head. It sometimes attains to the height of forty feet, from a 

 base of but four or five inches in diameter. It is often much 

 larger. On the banks of the Nashua River, in Lancaster, I 

 measured many stems a foot in diameter, and one, which, at 

 the height of one foot from the ground, was five feet and eight 

 inches in circumference, or nearly twenty -two inches in diam- 



* N. A. Sylva, III. 78. 



