238. SALIX SITCHENSIS SILKY WILLOW. SITKA WILLOW. 37 



and sparsely villous; stamens solitary, with long glabrous filament or sometimes 

 two united below; pistillate aments 2|-3 in. long and scarcely % in. broad with 

 short pointed pubescent scales; pistil with short stalked ovary, pubescent, 

 elongated style and entire or slightly emarginate stigma. Fruit capsules about 

 ^ in. long, acute-ovoid, light reddish brown, pubescent; aments at maturity of 

 fruit 3 or 4 in. long. 



The specific name Sitchensis alludes to the occurrence of this species in the 

 vicinity of Sitka, Alaska, which was the place of its discovery. 



A beautiful willow, commonly a large shrub but occasionally a low 

 straggling tree, it is rarely over 30 ft. (9 m.) in height or more than 

 1 ft. (0.30 m.) in thickness of trunk, which is vested in a reddish 

 brown bark furrowed lengthwise with low ridges which exfoliate in 

 thin small scales. It is conspicuous on account of the silvery whiteness 

 of the under surface of its leaves in strong contrast with the dark green 

 of the upper surfaces. 



HABITAT. The Silky Willow is confined to the immediate vicinity 

 of the Pacific coast, and ranges from Cook Inlet and Kadiak Island, 

 Alaska, southward through Washington, Oregon, and as far in Cali- 

 fornia as Santa Barbara, overhanging the banks of streams and the 

 borders of lakes, and in other moist situations up to an altitude of at 

 least fourteen hundred feet above tide. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood light, soft, not strong, with fine 

 obscure medullary rays and quite uniformly distributed fine ducts. It 

 is of a light orange-brown color with lighter sap-wood. Specific 

 Gravity, 0.5072; Percentage of Ash, 0.59; Relative Approximate 

 Fuel Value, 0.5042; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 31.61. 



USES. The wood of this willow is said to be prized by the Indians 

 of southern Alaska for frying salmon as the smoke does not impart a 

 disagreeable flavor, and the pounded bark is used as an application for 



bleeding flesh wounds. 



GYMNOSPERM^. 



Flowering, exogenous plants with leaves chiefly parallel-veined and cotyledon? 

 frequently more than two. Flowers diclinous and very incomplete; pistil repre- 

 sented by an open scale or leaf, or altogether wanting, with ovules naked, 

 fertilized by direct contact with the pollen, and seeds at maturity naked with- 

 out a true pericarp. 



ORDER CONIFERJE : PINE FAMILY. 



Leaves mostly awl shaped or needle shaped, evergreen, entire and parallel- 

 veined. Flowers monoecious, or rarely dioecious, in catkins or cones, destitute 

 of both calyx and corolla ; stamens one or several (usually united) ; ovary, style 

 and stigma wanting ; ovules one or several at the base of a scale, which serves as 

 a carpel, or on an open disk. Fruit a cone, woody and with distinct scales, or 

 somewhat berry-like, and with fleshy coherent scales, seeds orthotropous, embryo 

 in the axis of the albumen. 



Trees or shrubs with a resinous juice. 



