156 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



the season. Flowers: aments oblong-cylindric, densely flowered, appearing early in Feb- 

 ruary on short leafy brarichlets, the staminate 1^' long and nearly \' wide and rather longer 

 than the more slender pistillate aments becoming at maturity lax and 3'-4' long; scales 

 oblong-obovate, light green, and covered on the outer surface with long straight white 

 hairs; stamens 2, with elongated free glabrous filaments; ovary cylindric, short-stalked, 

 beaked, glabrous, with a short style and spreading entire or slightly emarginate stigmas. 

 Fruit narrow, long-pointed, light reddish bro\vn, \' in length; pedicels about half the length 

 of the scales. 



A tree, 40-50 high, with a tall straight trunk 10'-12' or rarely 18' in diameter, rather 

 slender upright slightly spreading branches forming a narrow open symmetrical head, and 

 slender branchlets marked by small scattered orange-colored lenticels, light green and 

 coated during their first year with thick pale pubescence, becoming reddish brown and 

 glabrous or puberulous in their second winter. Winter-buds ovoid, round, or flattened, 

 acute at the apex, reddish brown, hoary- to mentose, nearly 1' long. Bark thin, smooth, 

 light gray, slightly tinged with red, and covered with minute closely appressed plate-like 

 scales. Wood dark red-brown, with thin pale sap wood; durable, used for fence-posts. 



Distribution. Deep sandy alluvial bottom-lands of the Missouri River in southwestern 

 Nebraska to western Missouri; through northeastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma to 

 Cache Creek, Comanche County (G. W. Stevens); and from the neighborhood of St. Louis 

 to southeastern and western Iowa. 



17. Salix pyrifolia Anders. 



Scdix balsamifera Barr. 



Leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acute at apex, broad and rounded and usually sub- 

 cordate at base, finely glandular serrulate, balsamic particularly while young, when 

 they unfold thin, pellucid, red and coated below with long slender caducous hairs, at ma- 

 turity thin and firm, dark green above, pale and glaucous below, 2'-4' long, l'-l|' wide, 



Fig. 151 



with a yellow midrib and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles reddish or yellow, %'-%' 

 long; stipules often wanting or on vigorous shoots foliaceous, broadly ovate and acute. 

 Flowers: aments cylindric, l'-l|' long, on short leafy branchlets, the staminate l'-lj' 

 long and f in diameter and shorter and broader than the pistillate ament; scales obovate, 

 rose-colored, coated with long white hairs; stamens 2, with free filaments and reddish ulti- 

 mately yellow anthers; ovary narrow-ovoid, long-stalked, gradually contracted above the 

 middle, with a short style and emarginate stigmas. Fruit ovoid-conic, |' long, dark 

 orange color; pedicels ' in length. 





