DENDROLOGY. 



301 



Black Willow. Salix nigra. 



This species is the most 

 common of the American 

 willows. It is less multiplied 

 in the Northern and Southern 

 than in the Middle and 

 especially in the Western 

 States. It is found on the 

 banks of the great rivers, 

 such, as the Susquehannah 

 and the Ohio, and is called 

 Black Willow or simply 

 Willow. 



This tree is rarely more 

 than 30 or 35 feet high and 

 12 or 15 inches in diameter. 

 It divides_at a small height 

 into several divergent but 

 not pendant limbs, and forms a spacious summit. The leaves 

 are long, narrow, finely denticulated, of a light green, and 

 destitute of stipulse. In the uniformity of its coloring the foliage 

 of this species differs from that of the European willow, the 

 lower surface of which is glaucous. 



Upon the trunk the bark is grayish and finely chapped ; 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 as a purifier 

 of the blood, and as a preventative and a remedy for intermittent 

 fevers. 



PLATE XCIV. 

 Fijmre 1. The leaves. 



