38 SALICACEAE 



capsules when mature are narrowly ovate, often so contracted 

 above the middle as to seem acuminate, glabrous, ]/i to 14 i^^h 

 long, and they stand on short but distinct pedicels. 



Distribution. — Ward's Willow is a southern species that 

 ranges from the Potomac River and Cuba to Texas and Okla- 

 homa and from the Gulf of Mexico northward to the Ohio 

 River and up the Mississippi into Illinois in the region of East 

 St. Louis. 



The form occurring in the north, especially that in Illinois, is 

 recognized by some botanists as the variety Wardii (Bebb) 

 Schneider, for which the distinguishing characteristics are ob- 

 tuse stipules and glabrous branchlets. It grows along with the 

 Black Willow on the banks of rivers and swamps, but does not 

 stray inland, as the Black Willow does. 



SALIX LUCIDA Muhlenberg 

 Shining Willow 



The Shining Willow, fig. 4, is a shrub of moderate height, 

 usually 3 to 10 feet tall or occasionally treelike and up to 20 feet 

 high, with moderately stout, shining branchlets and large, long- 

 pointed, shiny green, leathery leaves. The leaves, though vari- 

 able, are generally ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2 to 6 inches long 

 by 34 to 2 inches wnde or even larger, with long acuminate tips 

 and acute or rounded bases. The margins are flat, non-revolute, 

 and closely serrate with sharp, gland-tipped teeth. The blades 

 are glabrous and green, and shining above and below. They 

 stand on moderately stout, chestnut to dark brown petioles fur- 

 nished with glands above on their outer ends. The stipules are 

 semilunate to reniform, glandular toothed, up to \^ inch long, 

 and eventually deciduous. The twigs and branchlets are terete, 

 moderately stout, shiny as if varnished, light to dark brown, and 

 glabrous, and the large buds are glabrous, narrowly ovate, 

 blunt to pointed, somewhat appressed, and l/^ to ^ inch long. 



The catkins emerge from lateral buds on the old wood be- 

 fore the leaves appear. They terminate leafy peduncles 14 to 

 ^ inch long and are stout, oval or oblong, ^ to 2 inches long 

 in flower, with oblong to obovate, obtuse, yellowish, thinly 

 long-hairy scales, the apices of which are entire or irregularly 

 notched with shallow indentations. Pistillate catkins become 2 

 to 3 inches long in fruit. The staminate flowers have each 3 to 



4 



