SALICINE^ 



CRACK WILLOW, Sa/iv fragtlis. 



Marshes. April, May. 



Flowers yellow, dicecious, lateral, appearing with leaves ; Male catkins 1-2 

 ins. long, stout, spreading, stalked, scales glabrous, or hairy on upper side, 

 linear-lanceolate, yellowish-green, entire, deciduous ; Stamens usually 2, distinct, 

 hairy below ; Female catkim I-4— 2J ins. long, slender ; Ovary ovate, smooth, 

 style short, stigma bifid, curved, longer than style, glands 2 ; mixed catkins 

 sometimes occur; F?yiit a capsule, pedicelled, tapering at top, glabrous, or 

 slightly hairy, scales caducous. 



Leaves alternate, elliptical-lanceolate, glandularly serrated, acuminate or 

 acute, glossy, glabrous, pale or glaucous beneath, slightly silky when young, 

 3-6 ins. long ; petioles glandular at top ; stipules slightly cordate, very 

 deciduous. Autunm tints yellow and brown. 



A deciduous t7-ee, 80-90 ft. ; Tiicnk sometimes 20 ft. in girth ; Branches 

 spreading obliquely, liable to become " stag-headed," i.e. dead in top shoots ; 

 Shoots yellow-brown, smooth, polished, frequently crossing, tough and pliant, 

 but easily broken off at base ; Bark- rough, thick, deeply scored, on small twigs 

 very bitter — containing salicine ; Buds pointed, smooth, reddish to deep brown 

 or nearly black ; Wood light, tough, elastic, durable. 



Indigenous in England, doubtfully so in Ireland and Scotland. Called Red- 

 wood Willow. Specific name from L. frugilis, brittle, referred to in common 

 name of Crack Willow. 



" Horse-bean galls " found on this and other species, produced by larva; of 

 a Gall-wasp [Nematus gallicola). 



DWARF WILLOW, AW/m hcrbacca. 



High mountains. .June. 



Flozocrs dioecious ; Ma/e catkins \-\ in. long, ovoid, few-fiowered, nearly 



sessile or on short sub-terminal leafless and pubescent peduncles, appearing after 



175 U 2 



