SALICACEJi. (WILLOW FAMILY.) 413 



somewhat cut-toothed ; fertile catkins long-stalked, ovoid. (A. undulata, Willd. 

 Betula crispa, Michx.) On mountains and along streams which descend from 

 them, N. New England and New York, shore of L. Superior, and northward. 

 Shrub 3 - 8 high. (Eu.) 



ORDER 110. SALIC ACES. (WiLL-ow FAMILY.)* 



Dioecious trees or shrubs, with both kinds of flowers in catkins, one under 

 each bract, entirely destitute of calyx or corolla; Vi/e fruit a 1-celled and 2- 

 valved pod, containing numerous seeds clothed with a long silky down. 

 Ovary 1-celled or imperfectly 2-celled : styles 2, very short, or more or 

 less united, each with a 2-lobed stigma. Seeds ascending, anatropous, with- 

 out albumen. Cotyledons flattened. Leaves alternate, undivided, with 

 scale-like and deciduous, or else leaf-like and persistent, stipules. Wood 

 soft and light : bark bitter. 



1. SAL.IX, Tourn. WILLOW. OSIER. 



Bracts (scales) of the catkins entire. Sterile flowers of 2 - 6 (rarely single) 

 stamens, accompanied by 1 or 2 little glands. Fertile flowers also with a small 

 flat gland at the base of the ovary on the inner side : stigmas short. Trees or 

 shrubs, generally growing along streams, with round flexible branches and large 

 tough roots. Leaves mostly long and pointed, entire or glandularly toothed. 

 Buds covered by a single scale, with an inner adherent membrane (separating 

 in 2). Catkins appearing before or with the leaves. (The classical name, 

 said to be derived from the Celtic sal, near, and lis, water. ) 



1. Catkins lateral and sessile, appearing before the leaves in Ajtril or May : stamen* 

 2 : scales dark red or brown becoming black, more or less hairy, persistent. 



* Ovary stalked, downy, hairy, or woolly. 



+~ Catkins ovoid or shoi-t-cylindrical, small : leaves entire or obscurely wavy-toothed, 

 hairy or woolly, with prominent veins and more or less revolute margins. Shrubs. 



1. S. Candida, Willd. (HOARY WILLOW.) Leaves narrowly lanceo- 

 late, taper-pointed, or the lowest obtuse, the upper surface and young branches 

 covered with a thin wef*-like wool more white and dense beneath stipules small, lanceo- 

 late, toothed, about the length of tfie petioles ; catkins oblong-cylindrical, closely 

 flowered; ovary densely woolly; style distinct; stigmas 2-cleft; scales oblong, 

 obtuse. (S. incana, Michx., not of Schrank.) New York and New Jersey to 

 Wisconsin, and northward ; in bogs. Stems 2 - 5 high, with reddish twigs, 

 smooth and shining at maturity. The whole shrub of a very white aspect in 

 exposed situations, but greener in shade. 



2. S. tristiS, Ait, (DWARF GRAY WILLOW.) Leaves almost sessile, 

 wedge-lanceolate, pointed, or the lower obtuse, grayish-woolly on both sides, the 



* I am Indebted to JOHN CARET, Esq., for the entire elaboration of this difficult family. (In 

 this second edition I have merely made slight additions respecting the range of some specie* 

 and have reduced the Balm of Gilead to a variety of Populus balsamifera.) 



