42 



WILLOW. 



[CHAP. 



scale-like leaf (bract), and constitute the male flower, of 

 which a number are crowded together upon tlie same catkin. 

 The pistil of the female flowers also springs from the axil of 

 a similar bract ; it is syncarpous, consisting of two carpels, 



Fig. 28. Staminate Flower of Willow. Fig. 29. Pistillate Flower of same. 



as indicated by the bifid stigma and two short lines of 

 ovules in the single cavity of the ovary. The flowers of the 

 Willow figured above may be described thus : — 



Calyx o. 

 Corolla o. 

 Male flower — Stamens 2 (diandrous). 

 Pistil o. 

 Female flower — Stamens o. 



Pistil syncarpous. 



In the Weeping Willow {Salix babylonica), much planted 

 in India, the staminate flowers are usually diandrous ; in the 

 common indigenous Willow {S. tetrasperma) they vary six 

 to eight. 



II. As the plants which we have hitherto examined difler 

 in many important particulars from those which yet remain 

 of the fourteen enumerated at the beginning of the chapter, it 



