204 



The Willows 



Fig. 1 66. Bcbb's Willow. 



glandular-toothed, sometimes i cm. long 

 or more, and usually fall away early. The 

 catkins are 2 to 3 cm. long, borne on very 

 short few-leaved branchlets, and flower 

 while the leaves are unfolding or before, 

 in April or May; their bracts are blunt, 

 hair}% yellow, with pink tips, those of the 

 pistillate catkins persistent; the staminate 

 flowers have 2 stamens with smooth fila- 

 ments; in the pistillate flowers the hairy 

 ova.ry is stalked, the notched stigmas ses- 

 sile on its apex. The fruiting pistillate 

 catkins become 5 cm. long or less, the 

 narrowly ovoid-conic beaked capsules 6 or 

 7 mm. long, their filiform stalks usually 

 about one half as long. 



27. BAKER'S WILLOW Salix Bakeri von Seamen 



This recently described Cahfornian species grows along streams in the west- 

 central parts of the State and has been 

 confused with Salix lasiolepis Bentham, 

 which it much resembles, but its capsules 

 are hairy toward the top; it attains a 

 height of 10 meters or more, and is re- 

 ported to extend northward into Oregon, 

 and there to become twice that height. 



The young twigs are finely puberulent, 

 soon becoming smooth and dark brown; 

 the winter buds are ovoid, puberulent, 

 pointed, about 4 mm. long. The leaves 

 are oblanceolate, or some of them oblong- 

 lanceolate, 4 to 7 cm. long, I to 1.5 cm. wide, 

 pointed at both ends or some of them blunt 

 at the apex, smooth, bright green and some- 

 what shining on the upper side, pale, hairy, 

 and rather prominently veined beneath, the 

 margins entire or with a few low teeth ; the 

 puberulent leaf-stalks are i cm. long or 

 less, the stipules small, obHquely oblong, 

 hairy beneath, sometimes persistent. The catkins appear before the leaves on twigs 

 of the preceding season, and flower in March or April; they are very short-stalked, 

 with a few small leaves at the base, 2 to 4 cm. long, about i cm. thick, their 



Fig. 167. Baker's Willow. 



