276 APETALOUS EXOGENS 



380. AI/WUS, Tournef. 

 [The ancient Latin name for the Alder.] 



STAM. AMENTS subfasciculate, cylindric, flaccid and pendulous; 

 bracts peltate, each with 5 bractlets, and 1 to 3 florets. Calyx 4- 

 parted. Stamens 4, inserted at the base of the calyx-lobes, and 

 opposite them ; anthers ovoid, 2-celled. PISTILLATE AMENTS ovoid- 

 oblong, with the bracts imbricated, fleshy, somewhat 3-lobed. Calyx 

 of 4 scale-like sepals, adnate at base to the bracts, all persistent 

 and becoming woody in fruit. Ovaries 2 under each bract ; stigmas 

 2, filiform. Fruit a compressed angular nut, rarely winged. Mostly 

 shrubs, the aments produced in autumn, for the next spring. 



1* A. ser I'Ulilta, Ait. Leaves obovate, subacuminate, denticu- 

 late-serrulate, smooth and green on both sides; stipules oval, 

 obtuse. 

 SERRULATE ALNUS. Common Alder. Candle Alder. 



Stem 6 to 10 feet high, with numerous crooked branches. Leaf-buds pedicellate, 

 covered with a single scale. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, strongly nerved and sub- 

 plicate ; petioles J^ to ^ an inch in length. Pistillate aments half an inch to near 

 an. inch in length, oblong, rigid, dark purplish-brown, persistent, and often some- 

 what clustered, on short lateral branches below the staminate ones, when in 

 flower, bristled with the dark-purple exserted stigmas. Nuts not margined. 

 Sab. Margins of rivulets, and swamps : common. Fl. March. JFV. Octo. 



Obs. A variety of this with the leaves thinner, less plicate, and 

 in every way full one-third larger than usual was collected on 

 the N. Valley Hill, in 1851, by Mr. JOSHUA HOOPES. 



ORDER XCV. SALICACEAE. 



Trees, or shrubs ; leaves alternate, simple, mostly stipulate ; stipules scale-like and 

 deciduous, or foliaceous and persistent 5 powers dioicous, all amentaceous; bracts 

 1-flowered ; cafa/xjnone, or a subturbinate disk ; stamens 1 to 12, or more, sometimes 

 monadelphous ; anthers 2-celled; ovary 1-celled, or imperfectly 2-celled, many- 

 ovuled ! stigmas 2, subsessile, each 2- or 3-lobed ; fruit a follicular kind of capsule, 

 opening at apex by 2 valves ; seeds ascending, numerous, minute, the funiculus 

 splitting into a silky coma ! albumen none. 



381. SA V MX ? Tournef. 

 [The Ancient Classical name.] 



Aments with the scales, or bracts, entire. Calyx none, or replaced 

 by 1 or 2 little glands, between the stamens, or pistil, and the 

 rachis. STAM. FL. Stamens 1 to 5 or 6; filaments sometimes 

 united. PISTILLATE FL. Stigmas 2-lobed ; ovules on parietal pla- 

 centae near the base of the ovary. Trees, or shrubs rarely herba- 

 ceous: branches numerous, terete and twiggy; buds covered by a 

 single scale; leaves usually rather long and narrow, entire, or glan- 

 dular-serrate.* 



* In revising our Native Willows, I have been under great obligations to JOHN 

 CAREY, Esq. of New York, the acute and able Botanist who elaborated that difficult 

 family for Prof. A. GRAY'S Manual; and who was so kind as to examine my 

 Chester County specimens, and to determine them in accordance with the said 

 Manual. 



