Trees 75 



slightly wavy margins dark green and smooth on the top, 

 and silky underneath. The aments are stalked, and the 

 capsules are densely silky-hairy. 



Salix sitchcnsis, or Sitka Willow, is a straggling shrub, 

 or a much-branched tree, with reddish-brow r n bark, slender, 

 downy branches, and leaves which are dark green above, 

 and thickly covered beneath with lustrous satiny hairs. 



SalLv arctica, or Arctic Willow, is a low branching shrub, 

 with egg-shaped leaves narrowed at the base, and growing 

 on long leaf-stalks. 



ASPEN POPLAR 



Populus tremuloides. Poplar Family 



A slender tree with thin, yellowish-brown or pale bark. Leaves: 

 ovate, short-acuminate at the apex, finely crentilate, rounded or sub- 

 cordate at the base. Flowers: Aments drooping, dense. Fruit: cap- 

 sule conic, acute, papillose. 



The Aspen Poplar is one of the prettiest trees among the 

 mountains, and when the wind blows its tiny heart-shaped 

 leaves, growing on very slender little stalks, tremble with a 

 soft rattling sound. The flowers grow in rather stout cat- 

 kins. 



Populus balsamifcra, or Balm of Gilead, has leaves 

 rounded at the base and pointed at the apex, finely toothed, 

 and with slightly revolute margins, that are dark green above 

 and pale green and somewhat rusty below. This tree grows 

 to a hundred feet in height, has stout erect branches, more 

 or less contorted towards the ends, and brown bark tinged 

 with red, which on older trunks becomes greyish and divided 

 into broad ridges covered with closely appressed scales. 



Populus trichocarpa, or Western Balsam Poplar, has 

 smooth ashy-grey bark, and stout upright spreading 

 branches. The large buds are very fragrant and resinous, 



