198 



The Willows 



veined, 6 to 12 mm. long, remaining until the fall 

 of the leaves or earHer deciduous. The catkins 

 are borne at the ends of very short, few-leaved 

 branchlets and flower in March or April before 

 the leaves unfold, or at the time they are unfold- 

 ing; they are from 2 to 5 cm. long, their bracts 

 blunt, hairy, persistent in the pistillate ones; the 

 staminate flowers have two smooth stamens, 

 the pistiflate a smooth, slender-stalked o\'a.Ty, the 

 notched stigmas about as long as the short style. 

 In fruit, the pistillate catkins become 6 to 10 cm. 

 long, the smooth, narrowly ovoid-conic capsules 

 6 to 8 mm. long, their filiform stalks 3 to 6 mm. 

 long. 

 Fig. 158. Missouri Willow. -pj^g ^q^j Js j^ore durable, and therefore more 



valuable than that of most other willows, and is used for posts; it is soft, weak, 

 reddish brown, the sapwood much lighter in color than the heart. 



19. CALIFORNIA WHITE WILLOW Salix lasiolepis Bentham 



Salix Bigelovii Torrey 



Inhabiting banks of rivers, streams, and lakes, the California white willow 

 ranges nearly throughout that State, extending into Nevada and Arizona, and 

 perhaps northward into southern Oregon. It is 

 often a shrub, but sometimes forms a tree up to 

 15 or 16 meters in height in southern Cahfomia. 



Its bark is brown, rather thin, more or less 

 fissured ; the young twigs at first velvety and yel- 

 low or reddish, becoming smooth and dark 

 brown or reddish brown; the winter buds are 

 smooth or a little hairy, flattened, pointed, 5 to 

 7 mm. long. The leaves are mostly oblanceo- 

 late, var}'ing to oblong-lanceolate, 6 to 10 cm. 

 long, I to 2 cm. wide, or those of young shoots 

 sometimes larger; they are pointed or bluntish 

 at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, 

 hairy on both sides when young, but smooth 

 and dark green on the upper surface when ma- 

 ture, the under side pale green or whitish and ^^" ^^'^' 

 more or less hair}', rather prominently netted- veined; their stalks are 5 to 12 mm. 

 long, the stipules ovate, hair}', usually very small and falhng away soon after the 

 leaves unfold, rarely larger and persistent. The catkins are 3 to 4 cm. long, and 

 flower in February or March before the leaves unfold, their bracts brown, hairy, 



California White Willow. 



