TAMARIX— POPULUS 53 



Tamarix gallica L i n n e 1753 Common Tamarisk 



Bushy shrub or small tree, 5-20 ft. high, with numerous feathery 

 branches ; leaves tiny, scale-like, ovate to lanceolate, entire, the margin 

 papery, sharp-pointed, broadly clasping at base, smooth, 1^2-3 mm. long; 

 flower spikes in racemes at the ends of branches, often 1 ft. long ; spikes 

 oblong, 2-5 cm. long, */2-l cm. wide; flowers tiny, pink, short-pedicelled. 

 lj/2-3 mm., capsules awl-shaped, smooth, shining, splitting usually into 

 three elongate valves, 5-6 mm. long; gallica, of Gaul, referring to its 

 home. 



Occasionally cultivated, but not perfectly hardy. In the East and 

 Middle West, it is highly valued for its beautiful, feathery appearance 

 and masses of delicate flowers, and for its wide range of adaptability. 



Salicaceae Willow Family 



Trees or shrubs with alternate simple leaves; flowers dioecious, both 

 kinds in catkins; sepals 0, petals 0, stamens 1-60, ovary 1 -celled, stigmas 

 2, often 2-4-cleft; fruit a small capsule, splitting into 2-4 parts; seeds 

 tiny, covered with long white or whitish hairs. 



A family containing but the two following genera, represented by 

 about 200 species, chiefly native to the north temperate and arctic zones. 



KEY TO THE GENERA 



1. Buds with several scales; bracts of the catkin 



fringed or cut ; stamens usually many in 



each flower Populus 



2. Buds with one scale; bracts entire; stamens 



1-10, usually 2 Salix 



Populus Linne 1753 

 (L. populus, poplar, probably from the root *p ai > to shake) 



Trees ; leaves alternate in five rows, simple, with prominent midrib ; 

 buds resinous, covered with several scales ; flowers dioecious, rarely 

 monoecious, appearing before the leaves' in hanging catkins with cut- 

 fringed scales ; sepals and petals lacking, but the disk often cup-like 

 stamens 6-60, ovary 1 -celled, ovate-conical, with 2-3 or rarely 4 rows 

 of seeds, stigmas 2-4, entire or lobed ; fruit a capsule with 2-4 valves, 

 smooth or hairy; seeds enclosed in a tuft of hairs. 



Propagated readily from seeds, cuttings and suckers. 



A genus of 25 species, natives of the northern hemisphere; five other 

 species occur in western North America. 



