52 SALICACEAE 



pubescent, and glaucescent. The broadly ovate, appressed buds 

 are yellowish, orange brown or even darker, heavily pubescent 

 to glabrate, blunt to rather pointed, one-sixteenth to 14 i"ch 

 long, and stand above prominent, closely spaced leaf-scars. 



The catkins appear before the leaves, in the latter part of 

 April in the southern counties and in the early part of May 

 in the northern. They are borne on old wood and arise from 

 lateral and subterminal buds. They are sessile, naked, obovoid 

 to cylindrical, and 1/^ to 1 14 inches long. Pistillate catkins 

 become % to 1]/^ inches long in fruit and are then divergent 

 or often recurved. Staminate flowers have 2 stamens, the 

 filaments of which are free and glabrous, and pistillate flowers 

 have short, entire styles capped by short, divided stigmas. The 

 capsules at maturity are slender, ampuliform, long beaked, 

 gray-pubescent and brow^n. They are \/i to Y^ inch long and 

 stand on pedicels about one-sixteenth inch high. 



Distribution. — The Prairie Willow is a shrub of very wide 

 range extending from New^foundland westw^ard into North 

 Dakota, and southw^ard in the east to Florida and in the w^est 

 to Texas. Throughout this region it is a frequent, even com- 

 mon, shrub of uplands and prairies. In size and texture of 

 leaves, pubescence and other characteristics it is exceedingly 

 variable, forms of it having been assigned no less than five 

 distinct, mostly specific names. Practically all Illinois material 

 is assignable to the variety rigidiuscula Andersson, which differs 

 from the forms found in the north and east in having narrowly 

 oblanceolate leaves that in age become both glabrate and 

 strongly veined beneath. 



SALIX BEBBIANA Sargent 



Beak Willow Bebb's Willow 



The Beak Willow, fig. 6, is a tall shrub, or sometimes a 

 small tree up to 25 feet high, with 1 to a few^ stems that bear 

 numerous slender, widely spreading branchlets, which are gla- 

 brous to pubescent, yellowish to brown, and abundantly marked 

 with bud scars. The thick, firm leaves are obovate to narrowly 

 oblanceolate, acute to abruptly acuminate at the apex, acute 

 at the base, and lj/4 to 3 or 4 inches long by ^ to I14 inches 

 wide. The margins are entire to wavy-crenate and a little 

 revolute, and the surface is dull green and finely pubescent 



