SALICACEJE. (\VIl.Lo\V FAMILY.) 429 



length only on the petioles and veins beneath ; fruiting aments oblong; lolies of 

 the bracts widely spreading, acute, smooth. — Cool shady banks in the upper 

 parts of Georgia, and northward. March. — A middle-sized tree, with dark 

 brown nigged bark, and close and fine-grained wood. Young twigs spicy and 

 aromatic. 



2. ALNUS, Tourn. Ai.tier. 



Sterile aments elongated, drooping. Bracts peltate, 5-bracteolate, 1 - 3-flow- 

 ered. Calyx 4-parted or (in No. 2) scale-like. Stamens 4 : anthers 2-celled. 

 Fertile aments short, erect. Bracts fleshy, 2-flowered. Calyx of four minute 

 scales, adherent to the bracts. Bracts of the fruiting ament woody, persistent. 

 Nut angled or winged. — Shrubs or small trees. Leaves petioled, serrate, the 

 stalked buds covered with a single scale. Fertile aments raccmed. 



1. A. Serrulata, Ait. Leaves ohovate, obtuse or abruptly pointed, serru- 

 late, commonly pubescent beneath, acute at the base, short-petioled ; stipules 

 oval, obtuse ; fruiting aments ovoid, short-peduncled ; fruit ovate, wingless. — 

 Banks of streams, Florida, and northward. Jan. -March. — Shrub 3° -12° 

 high. Leaves 2' -4' long, thickish, and partly persistent at its southern limits. 

 Calyx of the sterile flowers 4-parted. 



2. A. viridis, DC. Leaves oval, rounded at both ends, slightly oblique at 

 the base, finely and sharply serrate, softly pubescent on the lower surface, or only 

 on the veins and petiole , stipules ovate ; calyx of the sterile flowers scale-like ; 

 fniitiiiL' aments ovoid, long-peduncled ; fruit winged. High mountains of North 

 Carolina, and northward. April. — A low much branched shrub. Leaves 

 1'- 2' long. 



Order 131. SALICACE^]. (Willow Family.) 



Trees or shrubs, with soft wood, alternate simple stipulate leaves, and 

 dioecious amentaceous flowers, destitute of calyx and corolla, each solitary 

 in the axil of a simple bract. Stamens 2 - many. Ovary 1-celled or im- 

 perfectly 2-celled, with numerous erect anatropous ovides in each cell. 

 Styles 2, very short, more or less united : stigmas 2-lobed. Fruit a 

 2-valved many-seeded capsule. Seeds minute, clothed with long silky 

 hairs. Albumen none. Cotyledons elliptical, flattened. Radicle point- 

 ing downward. 



1. SALIX, Tourn. Willow. 



Bracts of the aments entire. Flowers each with 1-2 small glands. Stamens 

 2-6, free, or their filaments cohering at the base. Stigmas short, 2-lobed. — 

 Leaves commonly narrow, short-petioled. Stipules scale-like and deciduous, 

 or leafy and persistent. Buds covered with a single scale. Aments mostly 

 erect, appearing with or before the leaves. 



