SALICACEAE 53 



above but paler to glaucous and densely pubescent and rugose 

 beneath. The stipules may be obsolete or, if well grown, semi- 

 cordate, acute and serrate. 



The numerous catkins appear before or at the same time as 

 the leaves. The staminate catkins are up to 1 inch long, sessile, 

 yellow, and narrowed at the base. The pistillate catkins are 

 ^ to 114 inches long and nearly sessile when in flower, but as 

 much as 3 inches long and lax when in fruit, and terminal on 

 bracted or leafy, densely hairy peduncles 1/^ to ^ inch long. 

 Staminate flowers contain 2 stamens with slender filaments, 

 which are free. The capsules, which are lanceolate and taper 

 to a long beak, stand on slender pedicels, but the styles are 

 almost obsolete and the stigma lobes are entire to deeply cleft. 

 The scales in both catkins are lanceolate to oblong, mostly pale 

 yellow but reddish at the tips, and densely to thinly long-hairy. 

 The catkins are in flower during the early half of May, and 

 fruit matures in late May and early June. 



Distribution. — The Beak Willow grows in moist but not 

 swampy situations from Newfoundland to Alaska and south 

 to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, eastern South Dakota and cen- 

 tral California. In Illinois, it is abundant in the extreme 

 northeastern corner, whence it ranges westward across the 

 state, becoming rare in Jo Daviess County. 



SALIX TRISTIS Alton 



Dwarf Pussy Willow Dwarf Upland Willow 



The Dwarf Pussy Willow, fig. 6, is a low shrub, generally 

 12 to 18 inches, very seldom more than 2 feet, high with spread- 

 ing, decumbent branches and crowded, small, heathlike, hairy 

 leaves. The leaf blades are narrowly oblanceolate, Y2 to nearly 

 2 inches long by i/^ to ^ inch wide, acute at the tip and tapered 

 to the petiole. They are dark green and pubescent to glabrate 

 above but glaucous and woolly beneath, and the margins are 

 entire, undulate or undulate-serrate, and strongly revolute. 

 The short petioles are about i/^ inch long and generally pu- 

 bescent like the leaves. The early deciduous stipules are minutely 

 pubescent. Twigs and branches are slender to moderately stout, 

 terete, at first puberulent and green, but glabrous and yellow, 

 reddish brown, or nearly black in age. The reddish-brown, 

 blunt buds are ovate, finely and often sparsely puberulent, and 



