Shining Willow 



189 



ceolate, scmctimes ovate-lanceolate, 6 to 12 cm. long, i to 3 cm. wide, long- 

 pointed, fiLely toothed, bright green and somewhat shining on the upper side, pale 

 or glaucous beneath, rather thin, deciduous in early autumn; their stalks are slen- 

 der, 6 to 15 mm. long, their stipules usually small and falling away early, those 

 of leaves o* strong shoots sometimes large, reniform, 10 to 15 mm. wide. The 

 catkins appi;ar on short, leafy branches of the season early in the spring, and are 

 from 3 to 8 cm. long; the staminate flowers have 3 to 9 stamens with filaments 

 somewhat hairy toward the base; the pistillate ones have a smooth-stalked, ob- 

 long-ovoid oviry, a short style and notched stigmas. The fruiting catkins elon- 

 gate to 6 to 10 cm.; the ovoid-conic capsules are 5 to 6 mm. long, their slender 

 stalks one half to two thirds as long. 



The wood is soft and weak, light brown, the sapwood nearly white; its specific 

 gravity is about 0.45; it is used in the Northwest for clapboards and for charcoal. 

 The tree is also called Almond leaf willow. 



8. SHINING WILLOW SaUx lucida Muhlenberg 



A strikingly lustrous-leaved willow, growing in wet soil, especially in and along 

 swamps, from Newfoundland to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, westward to Atha- 

 basca, Kentucky, and Nebraska. It is often a shrub, but sometimes forms a tree 

 8 meters tall, with a trunk diameter of 2 dm. 



The bark is smooth, or nearly so, brown or 

 reddish brown; the young twigs are orange- 

 brown, at first often hair}% soon becoming 

 smooth and shining; the winter buds are 

 smooth, pointed, 4 to 6 mm. long. The lan- 

 ceolate or ovate-lanceolate leaves are pointed, 

 often very long- pointed, 7 to 15 cm. long, 1.5 

 to 4 cm. wide, finely toothed, the teeth mostly 

 glandular, the upper surface smooth, dark 

 green, brightly shining, the under side at first 

 usually hairy, but becoming smooth and paler 

 green than the upper; the leaf- stalks are 

 more or less hairy, 6 to 12 mm. long, usually 

 glandular toward the base of the blade with 

 stalked glands; the stipules are glandular- Fic. 147. - Shining Wiilovv. 



toothed, broad, sometimes 7 mm. wdde, and fall away early or remain until summer. 

 The catkins, which vsiry from 2 to 6 cm. in length, appear in May on short, leafy 

 branchlets of the season, their axes hain,-, their bracts blunt, sometimes toothed, 

 usually somewhat hairy; there are usually 5 stamens in the staminate flowers, with 

 filaments shghtly hair>' toward the base, and the pistillate flowers have a narrowly 

 ovoid ovar}^ with nearly sessile notched stigmas. The fruiting catkins are 6 cm. 

 long or less, the narrowly ovoid capsules smooth, much longer than their stalks. 



