THE WILLOWS OF OHIO. 285 



Salix alba L. White Willow. 



A tree attaining a maximum height of 30 m. with a trunk 

 diameter of 2."> m. Like Salix fragilis often growing in clumps 

 but when single-stemmed it is taller and more slender and has 

 the trunk continued as a central shaft to near the top. It is not 

 clean like that species hut is covered with a brush of suckers. 

 Bark of the twigs and branches yellowish green varying to yellow ; 

 winter buds smaller (4 mm. long) than those of the crack willow, 

 oblong and well filled out. The leaves reach a length of 13 cm. 

 and a breadth of ;5 em., lanceolate, acute, narrowed to the base, 

 closely and finely serrate, sometimes almost entire, grayish or 

 bluish glaucous, pubescent on both surfaces at least till mature, 

 (hair mostly persistent below) with close, line, appressed, parallel, 

 gray hairs, stipules deciduous; primary veins close (closer than in 

 ragilis), straight, ascending, regular, extending to the margin 

 without branching, secondaries conspicuously regular but often 

 forking like the letter Y. Catkins on lateral branches or some- 

 times supported only by bracts, scales hirsute, deciduous, cap- 

 sules ovate-conic, not more than 4 mm. long, greenish yellow in 

 fruit, obtuse, glabrous, pedicel very short, style short, stigmas 

 thick. 



Salix alba is a European species planted in this country for 

 the same purposes as S. fragilis. In most parts of the state it 

 does not seem to escape so readily as that species and hence is not 

 quite as common but may be found planted almost anywhere. 



A- stated above, most observers have considerable difficulty 

 in separating this s\ from the preceding. The difficulty is 



often assigned to their hybridising propensities. Hut in Ohio at 

 least hybrids are rather rare. I have found that the two 



distinct and separable m nearly all cases though it was only 

 after long study that the ability to distinguish them was acquired. 

 The manuals state that the species in the typical form is rare in 

 this country, the majority of the American tonus being the golden 

 er (var. vitellina). It i- certainl; true that few of our plants 

 are the typical hairy planl of Linneus but study of the European 

 mat en a I at Washington leads me to the conclusion that in Europe 

 t he- typical form is aboul a- scarce as here. Further the extremi 

 ly brighl yellow twigs and glabrous, half shiny leaves of the typi- 

 cal varietal form are scarcer in this country than the pure alba 

 form-. [1 ood practice in a oi intergrading 



forms to draw the hue between specie-, and variety dose to the 

 variety and to call all hut nearly typical varietal forms the spei 



, it lor no other reason to avoid the use of a trinomial. 



The variety vitellina then, of Salix <//>./ includes those plai I 

 with brighl golden yellow twigs and branches, and leaves soon 

 glabrous and brighl green. 



