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 bark, 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 S. : 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 nak<d 

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



A. Viridis, GREKV or MOUNTAIN ALDKR. 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 calkins 

 which have remained naked over winter: win'/ of fruit narrow and tltickish. 



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

 obovate smooth or smoo Irish 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. 



109. SALICACE^, WILLOW FAMILY. 



Trees or shrubs, with bitter kirk, soft light \voo:l, alternate undi- 

 vided leaves, either persistent or decuiuouj st'pu'.es, and dioecious 

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

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

 \vhich becomes a 2-valved pod with 2 parietal or basal placenta?, 

 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 tin; ovary on the inner side: stigmas 2, short, each 

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

 buds, and narrow leave.-;. 



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



shaped oblique disk. Stamens usually numerous. Srigmas 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 ot 

 the most tree-like wild ones. 



1. Stamens 2, but their filaments and ofien the anthers also united into one. 



S. purpurea, of En. : 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, BASKKT W. or OSIER, of Eu., the twigs best for basket- 

 work ; has lance-linear entire slender-pointed leaves 3'-G' long and satiny-white 

 underneath. 



