452 SALICACE.E. (WILLOW FAMILY.) 



hairy, acute. Mountains of Xortli Carolina. March - April. A tree 40- 

 60 high, with yellowish bark. Leaves 2' -3' long. 



3. B. lenta, L. (CHEKRY BIRCH.) Branchlets smooth ; leaves ovate or 

 oblong-ovate, acute, cordate, finely and doubly serrate, silky when young, at 

 length only on the petioles and veins beneath ; fruiting ameuts oblong; lobes 

 of the bracts widely spreading, acute, smooth. Cool shady banks in the 

 upper parts of Georgia, and northward. March. A middle-sized tree, with 

 dark brown rugged bark, and close and fine-grained wood. Young twigs 

 spicy and aromatic. 



2, ALNUS, Tourn. ALDER. 



Sterile aments elongated, drooping. Bracts peltate, 5-bracteolate, 1-3- 

 flowered. Calyx 4-parted or (in No. 2) scale-like. Stamens 4 : anthers 

 2-celled. Fertile ameuts short, erect. Bracts fleshy, 2-flowered. Calyx of 

 four minute scales, adherent to the bracts. Bracts of the fruiting ainent 

 woody, persistent. Nut angled or winged. Shrubs or small trees. Leaves 

 petioled, serrate, the stalked buds covered with a single scale. Fertile aments 

 racemed. 



1. A. serrulata, Ait. Leaves obovate, obtuse or abruptly pointed, serru- 

 late, commonly pubescent beneath, acute at the base, short petioled ; stipules 

 oval, obtuse ; fruiting aments ovoid, short-peduncled ; fruit ovate, wingless. 

 Banks of streams. Jan. - March. Shrub 3 - 12 high. Leaves 2' - 4' long, 

 thickish, and partly persistent at its southern limits. Calyx of the sterile 

 flowers 4-parted. 



2. A. viridis, DC- Leaves oval, rounded at both ends, slightly oblique 

 at the base, finely and sharply serrate, softly pubescent on the lower surface, 

 or only on the veins and petiole ; stipules ovate ; calyx of the sterile flowers 

 scale-like ; fruiting aments ovoid, long-peduncled ; fruit winge:!. High moun- 

 tains of North Carolina. April. A low much branched shrub. Leaves 

 1'- 2' long. 



ORDER 132. SALICACE^E. (WILLOW FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, with soft wood, alternate simple stipulate leaves, 

 and dioecious amentaceous flowers, destitute of calyx and corolla, each 

 solitary in the axil of a simple bract. Stamens 2 -many. Ovary 

 1-celled or imperfectly 2-celled, with numerous erect anatropous ovules 

 in each cell. Styles 2, very short, more or less united : stigmas 2- 

 lobed. Fruit a 2-valved many-seeded capsule. Seeds minute, clothed 

 with long silky hairs. Albumen none. Cotyledons elliptical, flat- 

 tened. Radicle pointing downward. 



1. SALIX, Tourn. WILLOW. 



Bracts of the aments entire. Flowers each with 1-2 small glands. Sta- 

 mens 2-6, free, or their filaments cohering at the base. Stigmns short. 2-lobed. 

 - Leaves commonly narrow, short-petioled. Stipules sralo like and deciduous, 



