Populus.] SALICINEA5. 369 



Order LXXII. salicine^. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, deciduous, stipulate. Flowers 

 dioecious, in catkins which usually precede the leaves. Perianth 0. Disk 

 annular urceolate or glandular. — Male. Stamens 2 or more, inserted 

 under the disk, filaments free or connate ; anthers basifixed, introrse. — 

 Female. Ovary sessile or pedicelled, 1-celled ; styles 2, short, stigmas 

 2 entire or 2-4-lobed ; ovules many on 2 parietal placentas, ascending, 

 anatropous, raphe dorsal. Capsule I -celled, loculicidal ; valves 2, rolling 

 back, many-seeded. Seeds minute, testa membranous, funicle short, with 

 a pencil of silky hairs that conceals the seed, albumen ; embryo straight, 

 cotyledons plano-convex, radicle inferior. — Distrib. Arctic and N. temp, 

 zones, rare in the tropics and S. ; absent from Australia and the Pacific ; 

 genera 2 ; species about 180. — Affinities. Very obscure. — Properties. 

 Bitter, astringent, febrifuge, aromatic. 



Leaves broad. Catkins drooping, scales cut 1 . Populn s. 



Leaves usually narrow. Catkins usually erect, scales entire .....2. Salix. 



1. PO'PULUS, Tournef. Poplar. 



Catkins drooping ; scales crenate lobed or cut. Disk oblique, cupular 

 Stamens 4-30, filaments free. Stigmas slender, 2-4-cleft. — Distrib. N, 

 temp, regions ; species 18. — Etym. The Latin name. 



Section 1. Leu'ce. Young shoots pubescent. Fruiting catkins dense 

 scales ciliate. Stamens 4-12. Stigmas 2-4-lobed. 



1. P. al'ba, L. ; buds not viscid, leaves of shoots more or less lobed, 



of branches broadly ovate cordate sinuate white and cottony beneath. 



Moist woods, river-banks, &c, from Elgin and the Clyde southd. ; Ireland 

 Channel Islands ; fl. March-April. — A large tree, 60-100 ft. ; bark grey, 

 smooth ; wood white ; branches spreading, buds cottony ; suckers many, 

 with large deltoid-ovate lobed and toothed leaves 2-4 in. diam. Leaves on 

 the branches 1-3 in., glabrous in age ; petiole very long, slender, compressed 

 Catkins 2-4 in., cylindric ; female shorter. Stamens 6-10; anthers purple. 

 Capsules \ in., narrow ovoid. — Distrib. From Gothland southd., N. 

 Africa, N. and W. Asia, N.W. Himalaya. — "Wood light, does not burn 

 easily. 



P. al'ba proper ; leaves of the suckers lobed, of the branches white and 

 cottony beneath, stigmas usually 2-4 linear. White Poplar, Abele. — 

 A doubtful native, cultivated as far N. as Forfar, but does not flower in 

 Scotland ? 



Sub-sp. P. canes'cens, Sm. ; leaves of the suckers angled and toothed, of the 

 branches hoary beneath or glabrous, stigmas 2-4 rarely 2 each 4-cleft. 

 Grey Poplar. — A supposed hybrid with tremula, indigenous in S.E. Eng- 

 land. Wood said to be superior to that of P. alba proper. I have never 

 seen stigmas like those figured in Engl. Pot. (? copied from Reichenbach). 



2. P. trem'ula, L. ; buds not viscid, leaves of shoots cordate acute 

 entire, of branches suborbicular-ovate sinuate-serrate with incurved teeth 

 glabrous or silky beneath. Aspen. 



B B 



