48 FOUNDATIONS OF BOTANY 
young, but becoming smooth with age ; petioles cylindrical. Pistil- 
late catkins smooth, erect, or spreading, loosely flowered. Capsule 
ovoid, usually shorter than the pedicel. Common in river swamps. 
A large tree with soft light wood, which is often used in making 
cheap furniture.* 
4. P. monilifera, Ait. ‘Corronwoop. A large and very rapidly 
growing tree, 75 to 100 or more feet in height, often with a markedly 
excurrent trunk. Leaves large and broadly triangular, with crenate- 
serrate margins and long, tapering acute tips; petioles long and 
considerably flattened. The numerous pediceled capsules are quite 
conspicuous when mature, and the air is filled with the downy 
seeds at the time when the capsules open. Common W., espe- 
cially along streams and planted as a shade-tree. 
Il. SALIX, Tourn. 
Shrubs or trees, branches usually very slender. Buds with 
single scales. Leaves usually long and narrow ; stipules some- 
times leaf-like or often small and soon deciduous. Bracts 
of the catkins entire; staminate catkins erect or drooping, 
staminate flowers with 2-10, mostly 2, distinct or united 
stamens. Pistillate catkins usually erect, flowers with a small 
gland 6n the inner side of the bract, stigmas short, 2-lobed. 
Capsule 2-valved.* 
1. S. nigra, Marsh. Buiack Wittow. Leaves elliptical or nar- 
rowly lanceolate, acute at each end, serrate, short-petioled, downy 
when young and becoming smooth with age, 2-3 in. long; stipules 
persistent or deciduous. Staminate catkins 1-2 in. long; the pistil- 
late 2-4 in. long. Stamens 3-7, distinct, filaments soft, hairy below. 
Capsule twice the length of the pedicel, ovate, taper-pointed, pointed 
by the prominent style. A small tree with very brittle branches. 
Along streams and borders of marshes.* 
2. S. babylonica, Tourn. Werrpinc Wittow. Leaves narrowly 
lanceolate, taper-pointed, serrate, slightly downy when young and 
becoming smooth with age, green above, pale beneath, often 5-7 in. 
long, petioles short, glandular. Catkins on short lateral branches. 
Stamens 2. Style almost none. Capsule sessile, smooth. Introduced 
and cultivated for ornament, becoming a large tree.* 
[Some 20 species of willow are found growing wild in the north- 
eastern and north central states, but they are very hard, even for 
botanists, to identify. ] 
