THE WILLOWS OF OHIO. 297 
SALIX DISCOLOR Muhl. Pussy WILLow. 
The pussy willow is typically a swamp shrub growing in 
clumps differing from those of S. sericea or S. cordata in that each 
plant is usually a close clump, separated from its neighbors by a 
distinct interval, while those species run over a considerable area 
in a loose clump. The stems are not ordinarily recumbent but 
strictly upright and straight. Twigs of swamp plants rank, 
sometimes almost 10 mm. in thickness varying from glossy to 
densely tomentose, with very large well filled purple-brown buds. 
In less luxuriant growth the twigs may be smaller, sometimes 
wooly, with smaller buds. Leaves varying from ovate to spatu- 
late, coarse serrate with blunt incurved teeth to entire or even 
slightly revolute, glabrescent above, beneath glabrous and paler 
to glaucous or sometimes tomentose or pilose. Hair soft and 
wooly as in S. bebbiana or short, straight and ferruginous. 
Pussies before anthesis larger than in any other species and 
consequently this is the favorite species with the children in 
search of pussies in the spring. At anthesis the staminate with 
. their long coarse filaments are larger than any other of our wil- 
lows except S. lucida; carpellate also very large, sometimes 13 
cm. in fruit, scales dark brown, capsules long (8 mm.), rostrate, 
gray pubescent to glabrate in age, pedicel sometimes nearly as 
long as the capsule but usually shorter. The flowering time is 
earlier than any other of our willows and it lasts such a short time 
that it frequently happens that Salix discolor blossoms and goes 
by before one gets out after it, a difficulty not met with in any 
other of our willows. When the other pussy willows are found 
in flower it is generally in fruit so that there is little danger of 
confusing it with them. 
As descrlbed above Salix discolor includes forms differing 
from each other very strikingly. But the longer I study them 
the surer I am that, diverse as they are, all are one species. The 
great differences are all in characters like the shape, surface and 
pubescence of the leaves, which are subject to considerable vari- 
ation and are to a great extent the outcome of various environ- 
mental conditions. The catkins also vary somewhat but in 
studying specimens from marked trees taken in flower and leaf I 
have been able to find no correlation between the separate varia- 
tions in flower and leaf. 
Plate IX. Salix discolor. 
Leafy twig of the most common form; other leaves shown below from 
left to right as follows: broad, blunt, tomentose form resembling S. 
nigricans of Europe connecting with S. bebbtana (rare); narrow ferrugi- 
nous form often found on plants which would pass as S. erzocephala; 
long, narrow, nearly entire form (var. prinoides); twig with winter bud 
and young pussies; staminate flowers typical; carpellate ament a little 
narrower than usual; fruiting ament typical except that it is unusually 
long; natural size; capsule enlarged three times. 
