98 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. SALICACES. 
and in the Old World to Madagascar,’ to southern Africa where one species? has been found, to the 
subtropical Himalayas of Sikkim’ and Burmah,* and to the islands of Java and Sumatra.’ Salix 
abounds in North America, especially at the north, where from sixty to seventy species occur,’ twenty of 
which attain the size and habit of trees, while the others are large or small and sometimes prostrate 
shrubs, and in Europe,’ in western and northern continental Asia,* and in Japan.? Impressions of the 
leaves of Salix found in the cretaceous rocks of Nebraska and of northern Europe show the antiquity 
of the genus, which is probably one of the oldest forms of dicotyledonous Angiosperme,” and in North 
America and Europe achieved its greatest specific development during the miocene period.” 
Salix produces soft tough light or rarely dark red-brown heartwood and pale often white sapwood 
used for many domestic purposes and for charcoal, the European and Asiatic Salix alba,” Salix 
Saliz Humboldtiana, subspec. falcata, Andersson, Svensk. Vetensk. 
Akad. Handi. ser. 4, vi. 17 (Monographia Salicum) (1867) ; De 
Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 199. 
Salix Humboldtiana, subspec. oxyphylia, Andersson, Svensk. 
Vetensk. Akad. Handi. 1. c. (1867) ; De Candolle Prodr. i. c. 
In Chili a manna-like secretion was at one time obtained in large 
quantities from this tree, and the bark was used as a febrifuge. 
(See Molina, Saggio sulla storia naturale de Chile, 140.) 
1 Salix Madagascariensis, Andersson, Svensk. Ventensk. Akad. 
Handl. l. c. 15, t. 1, £. 12 (1867) ; De Candolle, Prodr. 1. c. 198. 
Salix australis, Fries, Nov. Fl. Suec. Mant. i. 77 (not Forbes) 
(1832). — Trautvetter, Mém. Sav. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, 
iii. 622. 
2 Salix mucronata, Thunberg, Prodr. Pl. Cap. 6 (1794) ; Fl. Cap. 
140. — Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. ii. 685. — Fries, 1. c. 76. 
Salix igyptiaca, Thunberg, Prodr. Pl. Cap. 6 (not Linnzus) 
(1794). 
Salix hirsuta, Thunberg, l. c. (1794) ; Fl. Cap. 141. — Willde- 
now, J. c. 695. — Trautvetter, J. c. 623. — Fries, I. c. 77. 
Salix Capensis, Thunberg, Fl. Cap. 139 (1807).— Andersson, 
Svensk. Vetensk. Akad. Handi. 1. c. 13, t. 1, f.11; De Candolle 
Prodr. l. c. 197. 
Salix Gariepina, Burchell, Travels, i. 317 (1822). — Pappe, Sylva 
Capensis, 30. 
8 Andersson, Svensk. Vetensk. Akad. Handl. 1850, 463 ( Ost. Ind. 
Pilarter) ; Jour. Linn. Soc. iv. 39. — Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 
461.— Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 626. 
4 Kurz, Fl. Brit. Burm. ii. 493. 
5 Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. pt. ii. 460; Suppl. 187, 474 ; Ill. Fi. 
Arch. Ind. 11. 
6 Andersson, Ofvers. Vetensk. Akad. Férhandl. xv. 109 (Bidr. 
Nordam. Pilarter) ; Proc. Am. Acad. iv. 50. 
7 G. F. Hoffmann, Hist. Sal.— De Candolle, Lamarck Fl. Franc. 
ed. 3, iii. 282. Wahlenberg, Fl. Lapp. 257.—Seringe, Saules de 
la Suisse.— Koch, Sal. Europ. Comm.— Host, Salix. — Ledebour, 
Fi. Ross. iii. 596. — Smith, English Flora, iv. 163. —M. Sadler, Syn. 
Sal. Hungar. — Andersson, Salices Lapponie. — Kerner, Verhandl. 
Zoil.-Bot. Gesell. Wien. x. 3 (Niederésterr. Weiden). — Wimmer, 
Salices Europaee.— Gandoger, Sal. Nov. 
8 Turczaninow, Fl. Baicalensi-Dahurica, ii. 97. — Maximowicz, 
Mém. Sav. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, ix. 242 (Prim. Fi. 
Amur.). — Regel, Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Pétersbourg, iv. 131 (Tent. 
Fl. Ussur.). — Boissier, Fl. Orient. iv. 1181.— Franchet, Ann. Sci. 
Nat. sér. 6, xviii. 251 (Pl. Turkestan) ; Nouv. Arch. Mus. v. 282 ; 
vill. 120 (Pl. David. i, ii.). 
In southern China one indigenous Willow growing on the banks 
of streams in the neighborhood of Canton has been described (Salix 
Cantoniensis, Hance, Jour. Bot. vi. 48 [1868]). 
9 Thunberg, Fl. Jap. 24.— Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 516.— 
Andersson, Jfem. Am. Acad. n. ser. vi. 450. — Miquel, Ann. Mus. 
Lugd. Bat. iii. 24 (Prol. Fl. Jap.). 
10 Schimper, Pal. Veg. ii. 663. 
11 Lesquereux, Rep. U. S. Geolog. Surv. vii. 165, t. 22, f. 1-7; 
vill. 41, t. 1, f. 14-16 ; t. 16, f.3; 156, t. 31, f. 1-3; 247, t. 55, £. 
2,6, 7 (Contrib. Fossil Fl. W. Territories, ii., iii.). — Saporta, Origine 
Paléontologique des Arbres, 189.— Zittel, Handb. Paleontolog. ii. 
462. 
12 Linneus, Spec. 1021 (1753).— G. F. Hoffmann, J. c. 41, t. 
7, 8. — Willdenow, J. c. 710.— Host, J. c. 9, t. 32, 33. — Forbes, 
Salict. Woburn. 271, t.— Ledebour, Fl. Alt. iv. 255; Fl. Ross. iii. 
599. — Reichenbach, Icon. Fl. German. xi. 28, t. 608.— Hartig, 
Forst. Culturpfl. Deutschl. 420, t. 40.— Willkomm & Lange, Prodr. 
Fl. Hispan. 1. 226. — Andersson, Svensk. Vetensk. Akad. Hand. l. c. 
47; De Candolle Prodr. l. c. 211.— Parlatore, FY. Jtal. iv. 217. — 
Boissier, Fl. Orient. iv. 1185.— Watson & Coulter, Gray’s Man. 
ed. 6, 481. 
Salix flexibilis, Gilibert, Exercit. ii. 406 (1792). 
Salix pallida, Salisbury, Prodr. 394 (1796). 
Salix heterophylla, Bray, Denkschr. Bot. Gesell. Regensb. i. 51 
(1815). 
Salix splendens, Opiz, Bohm. Gewéich. 110 (1823). 
Salix alba, which is a noble tree often eighty feet in height, 
with a trunk frequently three or four feet in diameter, and 
ascending branches, is widely distributed in many forms through 
Europe from southern Scandinavia to the shores of the Mediterra- 
nean, and through Siberia, western Asia, and northern Africa, and 
It must have 
been brought to eastern North America soon after the settlement 
is often cultivated as a timber and ornamental tree. 
of the country by Europeans, as it is everywhere naturalized in 
all the coast region from the valley of the St. Lawrence River 
to that of the Potomac, growing on the banks of streams and on 
low ground to its largest size, the varieties cerulea (Andersson, De 
Candolle Prodr. l. c. 211 [1868]. Salix alba, 8, Koch, 1. c. 16 [1828]. 
Salix coerulea, Smith & Sowerby, English Bot. xxxiv. t. 2431 [1812]), 
with olive-green branchlets and dull bluish green leaves glaucous 
below, and vitellina (Willkomm & Lange, l.c. [1861]. Salix alba, y, 
Koch, /. c. [1828]. Salix vitellina, Linneus, l. c. 1016 [1753]), with 
yellow or reddish branchlets, being more common in North America 
than the typical form with greenish branchlets and silvery white 
silky leaves. In the treeless prairie and mid-continental plateau 
regions of North America, where the varieties of Salix alba have 
been planted in large numbers, they grow under the most severe 
climatic conditions more rapidly than other trees, often flourishing 
in positions where these have been unable to live. 
The wood of Salix alba and of the other arborescent Species is 
employed for the rafters of buildings, for the lining of carts used 
