320 PIPERACEAE (PEPPEPv FAMILY) 



PIPERACEAE (Pepper Family) 



Herbs, toith joined stems, alternate entire leaves, and perfect flowers in spikes, 

 entirely destitute of floral envelopes, and with >>-5 more or less separate or united 

 ovaries; ovules few, orthotropous. — The characters are those of the Tribe 

 Saurureae, the Piperaceae proper (wholly tropical) differing in having a l-celleU 

 and 1-ovuled ovary. 



1. SAURtTRUS [Plum.] L. Lizard's Tail 



Stamens mostly 6 or 7, hypogynous, with distinct filaments. Fruit somewhat 

 fleshy, wrinkled, of 3-4 indehiscent carpels united at base. Stigmas recurved. 

 Seeds usually solitary, ascending. — Perennial marsh herbs, with heart-shaped 

 converging-ribbed petioled leaves, without distinct stipules ; flowers (each with 

 a small bract adnate to or borne on the pedicel) crowded in a slender wand-like 

 and naked-peduncled terminal spike or raceme (its appearance giving rise to tlie 

 name, from aaupos, a lizard, and ovpd, tail). 



1. S. cernuus L. Flowers white, fragrant ; spike nodding at the end ; bract 

 lanceolate ; filaments long and capillary. — Swamps and shallow water, near the 

 coast, R. I. to Fla. ; and from s. Ont. and O. to Minn, and southw. June-Aug. 



SALICACEAE (Willow Family) 



Dioecious (or by exception monoecious) trees or shrubs, with both kinds of 

 flowers in catkins, one to each bract (scale), without perianth ; the fruit a \-celled 

 and 2-i-valved pod, with 2-4 parietal or basal placentae, bearing numerous seeds 

 furnished with long silkij down. — Stigmas 2, often 2-lobed. Seeds ascending, 

 anatropous, without albumen. Cotyledons flattened. Leaves alternate, undi- 

 vided, with scale-like and deciduous, or else leaf-like and persistent, stipules. 

 Wood soft and light ; bark bitter. 



1. Saliz. Scales entire or merely toothed. Flowers with small glands at base; disk none. 



Stamens few. Stigmas short. Buds with a single scale. 



2. Populus. Scales lacerate. Flowers with a broad or cup-shaped disk. Stamens numerous. 



Stigmas elongated. Buds covered by several scales. 



1. SAlIX [Tourn.] L. Willow. Osier 



Sterile flowers of 3-10, mostly 2, distinct or united stamens, accompanied by 

 1 or 2 small glands. Fertile flowers also with a small flat gland at the base of 

 the ovary ; stigmas short. — Trees or shrubs, with mostly terete and lithe 

 branches. Leaves mostly long and pointed, entire or glandular-toothed. 

 Buds covered by a single scale, with an inner usually adherent membrane. 

 Catkins appearing before or with the leaves. (The classical Latin name.) 

 Species largely wind-pollinated and very freely hybridizing. 



JV". B. — In this genus, uidess otlierwise noted, the figures of the leaves are on 

 a scale of \, while those of the fruit are on a scale of 3^. 



§1. Arnents borne on short lateral leafy branchlets ; scales yellowish^ falling 

 before the capsules mature; filaments hairy below, all free ; style very short 

 or obsolete ; stigmas thick, notched. 



* Stamens 3-5 or more. 



H- Leaves with no petiolar glands; sterile aments elongated, slender-cylindri- 

 cal ; flowers somewhat remotely subverticillate ; scales crisp-villoiis on the 

 inside. 



1. S. nigra Marsh. (Black W.) Shrub, or, when well developed, a rough- 

 barked tree 5-30 m. high ; leaves narrowly lanceolate, very long -attenuate from 



