Handbook of Tkees of the Northern States and Canada. 75 



The Peach-leaf Willow is a handsome and 

 distinct Willow, sometimes attaining the 

 height of til) or 70 ft. with straiglit columnar 

 trunk 2 ft. in diameter. When isolated from 

 other trees it develops a rather narrow rounded 

 top of upright ami spreading hnmchcs. and 

 while the bark of trunk is ridged it is dis- 

 tinctly smoother and with more appressed 

 scales than is that of the Black U'iilow, a 

 character especially noticeable on the larger 

 branches. Its large pendent leaves are quite 

 suggestive of those of the Peach and Almond 

 trees and from that fact it receives its name. 

 In company with the Black Willow, with 

 which it apparently freely hybridizes, it grows 

 along the borders of streams and low hike- 

 shores over a large area. In distribution it is 

 an almost exact complement of that of the 

 I'.laek Willow, in that it is rarer in the east 

 and more abundant westward as far as to the 

 Rocky ^lountiiins at least, while the reverse is 

 true of the Black Willow. 



Its wood is light, a cubic foot when abso- 

 lutely dry weighing 28.10 lbs., soft and not 

 strong, and used mainly for charcoal and fuel.i 



Lrarrs revoliite in the bud, 2-6 in. long, ovate- 

 lanceolate to lanc(>olate. from cuneate to rounded 

 at haso. finely siM-ratc, narrowing to a long slt'ndpr 

 point ; lustniiis liirht gn-cn aliovc, pale and ghiu- 

 cous beneath : petioles slender, elongated and with- 

 out glands : stipules reniforni l)iU mostly fugacious. 

 Floucrii appear with the leaves in tei-miual ameuts 

 on leafy bi-aiichlets : scales yellow, villous l)oth 

 sides. cadnc<!us : stamens ."i-'.l with filaments hairy 

 at base ; pistillate aments loose with long-stalked 

 narrow-ovoid glabrous ovaries and nearly sessile 

 emarginate stigmas. Fruit globose conical with 

 long slender pedicels. = 



1. A. W., Ill, 71. 



2. For genus see pp. 42.5—426. 



