Handbook of Trees of the Xortiikrx States and Canada. 



79 



The Black Willow is the largest and most 

 abundant of the American Willows, sometimes 

 in the forest attaining a height of 120 ft. with 

 trunk 3 or 4 ft. in diameter, but these dimen- 

 sions are attained only under most favorable 

 conditions and it is usually a tree of less than 

 half the dimensions above mentioned. When 

 isolated it develops a rather irregular broad 

 or round-topped head witli line hranchlets and 

 drooping yellow-green foliag >. It commonly 

 sends up clusters of crooked or inclined trunks 

 from a common base. It is a tree of very wide 

 distribution, skirting the low banks of streams 

 and lake shores from the Atlantic nearly to 

 the Pacific. It is very abundant in the Mis- 

 sissippi valley and throughout the Atlantic 

 states, and attains its largest dimensions in 

 southern Illinois and in the Colorado River 

 valley in Texas. 



The light soft wood is said to check badly 

 in drying and is little used save for fuel and 

 for charcoal. A cubic foot when absolutely 

 dry weighs 27.77 Ibs.i The bark is rich in 

 tanning and is used in domestic practice in 

 the treatment of fevers. 



Leaves involute in tho bud, lanceolate, some- 

 times falcate (markedly so in var. falcatn) very 

 Ions; attenuate often with curved tip, :>-(! in. loni,'. 

 wedge-sliaped or rounded at base, finely serrate, 

 glabrous light green altove. somewhat paler and 

 sometimes pubescent on the veins beneath an i 

 with the very short glandless petioles : winter buds 

 small, about" % in. long. Floirrm expanding with 

 the leaves : arnents l-.T in. long, terminal on short 

 leafy hranchlets : scales yellow, rounded at apey. 

 hairy on inner surface : stamens ."-7 with filaments 

 hairV at base : ovary Ions-ovoid, stalked, and with 

 thick nearly sessile' stigmas. Fruit (.Tune-.Tuly ) : 

 cansules ovoid, gradually narrowing above the 

 middle, about Vs in. lonsr. shovt-stalked. glabrous. 

 S. tupra falcnta (Prush) Torr. is a form, with 

 narrower "and more falcate leaves green both 

 sides, ranging from Massachusetts to Ohio and 

 Florida. 



1. A. W., II, 45. 



