VIII. 2. THE BLACK WILLOW. 271 



Sp. 16. The Black Willow. S. nigra. Marshall. 



Leaves figured in Michaux, Sylva, III, Plate 125, fig. 1, and in Annals of Bot- 

 any, II, Plate 5, fig. 5. 



Leaves lanceolate, rounded at base when young, afterwards acute at each 

 end, smoothish and green on both surfaces, the upper surface of the footstalk 

 and mid-rib downy ; stipules roundish-heart-shaped, pointed, deciduous; aments 

 rather long, lax, villous, flexuose, expanding with the leaves ; filaments four to 

 six, bearded at base ; scales small, oblong, spreading, very hairy ; ovaries on a 

 short stalk, brown, ovate, smooth ; style short, stigmas notched ; young shoots 

 puberulent. — Hooker, Fl., Bo?-. Am. II, 148 ; Darlington, 559 ; Pursh, II, 

 614 ; Muhlenberg, Ann. of BoL, II, 65. 



A small tree, eight or ten feet high, growing usually on the 

 edge of streams and lakes, and bending over the water. The 

 twigs are light green, downy, rendered slightly angular by the 

 continuance downwards of the vessels of the leafstalk. Leaves 

 lanceolate, very downy and acute when young, afterwards 

 lengthening much, tapering to a long point, and becoming 

 smooth, often somewhat falcate, serrate, the serratures glandu- 

 lar, green on both surfaces, finally smooth, except the mid-rib 

 above, and sometimes below. Footstalks short, hairy, some- 

 times with ferruginous glands near the base of the leaf. 



Flowers in May; capsules ripe in June. This willow be- 

 comes larger, further south. Darlington says it is, in Chester 

 County, Pennsylvania, fifteen to twenty feet high, with a diam- 

 eter of from eight to fifteen inches, and a dark-colored, rough 

 bark, with a stem often crooked or leaning. 



Dr. Barratt says that, at Middletown, Connecticut, " The 

 young leaves, in flowering time, are often subcordate at the 

 base, and distinguishable by the white pubescence along the 

 mid-rib, and on the young leaves. In Autumn, the leaves are 

 glabrous, narrow, and mostly falcate. The fine twigs of this 

 species are exceedingly brittle at the base. It is known to bas- 

 ket-makers as the ' wicker willow,' and is much esteemed for 

 its great elasticity, in fine kinds of wicker work. It approaches 

 the nearest of any of the native willows to S. triandra, of Eu- 

 rope. This is the last of the willows to flower. The capsules 

 ripen in about a calendar month ; and this as a general rule will 

 apply to the rest of the willows, varying but little in ordinary 



