CRACK WILLOW 



131 



voLing- leaves are hairy. The stipules or leallike organs are halt heart- 

 shaped, and are deciduous, soon falling. The leaf-stalk is glandular 

 at the tip. The catkins are spreading, stout, inversely egg-shaped, 

 lance-shaped, hairless, stalked, and ap[)ear with the leaves. There are 

 usually 2 stamens, rarely 3-5, longer than the scales. The style 



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Crack Willow (.S'«//.v frngilis, L. ) 



is short. The stigma is of the same length, and 2-lobed. The capsule 

 is stalked, hairless, the ovary awl-like. 



The Crack Willow is 15-50 ft. or even 90 ft. in height, flowering in 

 April and May. It is a perennial deciduous tree propagated by seeds. 



The rtowers differ lildc from wind -pollinated llowers, but the kindi-ed 

 species S. caprea, S. aiiyita, c<:r., lia\e s[)(rial structures for various 

 insect visitors in spring to produce cross-pollination. In the first place, 

 the crowded flowers in one catkin make it con.spicuous, and more readily 

 and quickly sucked by bees than if separate. As in other diclinous 

 insect-pollinated flowers, the male llowers are more conspicuous than 

 the female, owing to the bright-yellow anthers. Secondly, the appear- 

 ance of the flowers before the leaves, makes the flowers more conspicu- 

 ous; and thirdlv, the large store of honey and pollen; and fourthly, the 



