Bebb's Willow 



203 



quite entire-margined, pointed or Ijlunt at the apex, narrowed at the base, 4 to 

 12 cm. long, 2 to 5 cm. wide, hairy on both sides when ver}^ young, persistently 

 satiny or silvery-hairy on the 

 under side but dark green and 

 nearly smooth on the upper sur- 

 face when mature; their hairy 

 stalks are i cm. long or less, 

 their stipules broad, glandular- 

 toothed, white-hair}', at least be- 

 neath, early faUing away. The 

 catkins are borne on short, few- 

 leaved branches of the season 

 and flower while the leaves are 

 unfolding, from March to June 

 according to latitude; they are 

 from 3 to 6 cm. long, with yel- 

 lowish hair}^ bracts; the staminate 

 flowers have only one stamen, its 

 filament smooth (2 stamens with 



Fig. 165. Satin Willow. 



partly united filaments are recorded as rarely observ^ed) ; the pistillate flowers have 

 a hsi'iry ovoid ovary with a very short stalk, the slender style two or three times as 

 long as the stigmas. In fruit the pistillate catkins become 8 cm. long or less, the 

 woolly or hairy capsules 5 to 6 mm. long. 



The wood of the Satin willow is light red, soft and weak, with a specific gravity 

 of 0.51. The satiny under surfaces of its leaves make it a strikingly beautiful plant. 



26. BEBB'S WILLOW Salix Bebbiana Sargent 



Salix rostrata Richardson, not Thuillier 



Bebb's willow, named in honor of the late M. S. Bebb, a diligent student of 

 willows, grows in various situations, preferring wet soil, from Anticosti to Hudson 

 bay and Alaska, south to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nebraska, New 

 Mexico, and Oregon, being one of the most widely distributed species. It is a 

 shrub or small tree, occasionally 8 meters high, with a trunk 2 dm. thick or less. 



The thin reddish green bark is scaly, the young twigs ver\' hair\', becoming 

 smooth and purplish or brown, the winter buds narrow, bluntish, puberulent, 

 about 5 mm. long. The leaves are eUiptic to oblong-lanceolate, or sometimes 

 broadest a Httle above the middle, 2.5 to 7 cm. long, 2.5 cm. wide or less, spar- 

 ingly toothed or entire-margined, pointed at the apex or some of them blunt, nar- 

 rowed or rounded at the base, pale green, rather prominently netted-veined and 

 hair\^ on the under side, dull green and smooth or merely puberulent above, 

 sometimes nearly smooth on both sides when very old; their stalks are from 4 

 to 12 mm. long, and usually hairy, their stipules half heart-shaped, pointed, 



