WILLOW FAMILY. 307 



beneath, and even dark green above), and more papery bark than in White 

 Birch, separating in ample sheets. 



-* * * Trunk with greenish-brown Ixirk, hardly peeling in layers, reddish twigs 

 little aromatic, and, oblong downy short-stalked catkins : wings of fruit broad. 



B. nigra, RIVER or RED BIRCH. Middle-sized tree of low river-banks, 

 commonest 8. : leaves rhombic-ovate, whitish and mostly downy beneath. 



2. ALNUS, ALDER. (Ancient Latin name.) Small trees or shrubs, with 

 narrow leaf-buds of very few scales and often stalked, and catkins mostly 

 clustered or racemed on leafless branchlets or peduncles. 



1. Flowers with the leaves in spring, the sterile from catkins which were naked 

 over winter, while the fertile catkin was enclosed in a scaly bud. 



A. viridis, GREEN or MOUNTAIN ALDER. Only rather far N., and on 

 mountains: 3 -8 high; leaves round-oval or ovate, glutinous; fruit with 

 a broad thin wing. 



2. Flowers in earliest, spring, much before the leaves, both sorts from catkins 

 which have remained naked over winter : wing of fruit narrow and thickish. . 



A. serrulata, SMOOTH A. Common, especially S. : 6 - 12 high, with 

 obovate smooth or smoothish leaves green both sides and sharply serrate. 



A. incana, SPECKLED or HOARY A. Common N. along streams : 8 -20 

 high ; with broadly oval or ovate leaves rounded at base, serrate and often 

 coarsely toothed, whitened and commonly downy beneath. 



1O9. SALICACE^I, WILLOW FAMILY. 



Trees or shrubs, with bitter bark, soft light wood, alternate undi- 

 vided leaves, either persistent or deciduous stipules, and dioecious 

 flowers ; both kinds in catkins, one flower under each bract or scale, 

 the staminate of naked stamens only j the fertile of a 1-celled ovary 

 which becomes a 2-valved pod with 2 parietal or basal placentae, 

 bearing numerous seeds furnished with a tuft of long cottony down at 

 one end. 



1. SALIX. Scales of the catkins entire. Sterile flowers of few or rarely many 



stamens, accompanied by 1 or 2 little glands. Fertile flowers with a little 

 gland at the base of the ovary on the inner side: stigmas 2, short, each 

 sometimes 2-lobed. Shrubs or trees with lithe branches, mostly 1-scaled 

 buds, and narrow leaves. 



2. POPULUS. Scales of the catkins cut or cleft at the apex. Flowers on a cup- 



shaped oblique disk. Stamens usually numerous. Stigmas long. Catkins 

 drooping; flowers preceding the leaves, these mostly broad. Buds scaly. 



1. SALIX, WILLOW, OSIER. (The classical Latin name.) The Wil- 

 lows, especially the numerous wild ones, are much too difficult for the be- 

 ginner to undertake. For their study the Manual must be used. The 

 following are the common ones planted from the Old World, with some of 

 the most tree-like wild ones. 



1. Stamens 2, but their JUaments and often the anthers also united into one. 



S. purjptirea, of Eu. : known by the reddish or olive-colored twigs, lateral 

 catkins before the leaves and with dark scales, red anthers, and sessile downy 

 ovary. 



2. Stamens 2 and separate. 



* Flowers earlier than the leaves : catkins sessile along the shoot of preceding year. 



S. Viminalis, BASKET W. or OSIER, of Eu., the twigs best for basket- 

 work ; lias lance-linear entire slendeivpointed leaves 3' - 6' long and satiny-white 

 underneath. 



