SALIX 59 



Wood light brown, soft, weak, weight 24 lbs. ; used in the West for 

 boxes, fencing, fuel, etc. 



Populus balsamifera L Inne 1753 Balsam, Balsam Poplar 



Tall tree, 50-100 ft. high, 2-5 ft. diam. ; bark grayish or greenish, 

 smooth, somewhat ridged on old trunks ; leaves narrowly to broadly ovate, 

 the edge closely and finely wavy-toothed, tip rather long, acute, rounded, 

 rarely slightly cordate at base, smooth, dark green, and shining above, 

 the lower surface pale and resinous, often splashed with red, somewhat 

 3-nerved at base, 7-12 cm. long, 4-6 cm. wide, petioles round, hairy. 

 4-6 cm. long; staminate catkins 5-10 cm. long, bracts usually coarsely 

 fringed, sometimes lobed or divided, stamens 20-30 ; fruiting catkins 

 12-15 cm. long, capsules ovate, rugose, 8-10 mm. long; balsamifera, 

 balsam-bearing, referring to the resinous buds and leaves. 



The variety candicans differs in its broadly ovate leaves with heart- 

 shaped bases, 10-12 cm. long, 8-10 cm. wide, and in the hairy petioles 

 and veins. 



Along streams and edges of swamps, common throughout the north- 

 ern half of the state but rare or lacking in the south; Nfd-NY-Mich- 

 Nebr-Colo-Saskatchewan- Alaska. 



Wood light brown, soft, weak, close-grained, weight 22 lbs., used for 

 boxes, pails, packing cases, wood-pulp and net floats. 



Salix Lin ne 1753 

 (L. s a 1 i x, willow or sallow, the archaic name of willow in English) 



Trees or shrubs; leaves alternate in 5 rows, simple, pinnately veined; 

 buds not resinous, with a single scale; flowers dioecious, though excep- 

 tionally monoecious, appearing before the leaves or with them, in catkins, 

 with entire usually hairy scales, each flower with a nectar-bearing disk, 

 fragrant; stamens 1-10, usually 2, in each flower, ovary 1-celled, conical 

 to beaked, with two rows of ovules, stigmas 2, capsule 2-valved, smooth 

 or hairy, seeds enclosed in a tuft of hairs. Flowering in April or May. 



Propagated by seeds or cuttings. 



A genus of 170 species, widely distributed through the north temperate 

 and arctic zones, about 80 species occur in North America. 



