162 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



oblong-cylindric, erect, rather lax, often more or less curved, about 1|' long, on short 

 tomentose scale-bearing branchlets, the staminate f thick and rather thicker than the 

 pistillate; scales oblong-obovate, yellow, coated with long pale hairs, the staminate rounded 

 above and rather shorter than the more acute scales of the pistillate ament persistent under 

 the fruit; stamens 2, with free elongated glabrous filaments; ovary conic, glabrous, stalked, 

 with a slender stalk about one third as long as the scale, gradually narrowed above, with a 

 slender elongated bright red style and broad spreading entire stigmas. Fruit oblong- 

 cylindric, narrowed above, about \' long. 



Fig. 157 



A tree, occasionally 30 high, with a trunk about 1 in diameter, and stout branchlets 

 marked by large scattered orange-colored lenticels, covered during their first season with 

 hoary tomentum and rather bright or dark red-brown and pubescent in then* second sum- 

 mer; more often shrubby, with numerous stems 4'-8' thick and 15-20 high; frequently a 

 low bush, with straggling almost prostrate stems. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, nearly terete, 

 dark red, coated with pale pubescence, about \' long. Bark nearly \' thick, light red- 

 brown, slightly fissured and divided into closely appressed plate-like scales. Wood light, 

 soft, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thin nearly white sapwood. 



Distribution. Borders of salt marshes and ponds and sandy coast dunes; Vancouver 

 Island southward along the shores of Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean to southern 

 Oregon. 



24. Salix sitchensis Sanson. 



Leaves oblong-obovate to oblanceolate, entire or minutely glandular dentate, acute or 

 acuminate, or rounded and short-pointed, or rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and 

 cuneate at base, when they unfold pubescent or tomentose on the upper surface, and coated 

 on the lower with lustrous white silky pubescence or tomentum persistent during the 

 season or sometimes deciduous from the leaves of vigorous young shoots, at maturity thin 

 and firm, dark green, lustrous and glabrous above, with the exception of the pubescent 

 midrib, 2'-5' long, f'-l^' wide, with conspicuous slender veins arcuate and united within 

 the margins and prominent reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, pubescent, rarely \' long; 

 stipules rarely produced, foliaceous, semilunar, acute or rounded at apex, glandular- 

 dentate, coated below with hoary tomentum, often \' long, caducous. Flowers: aments 

 cylindric, densely flowered, erect on short tomentose leafy branchlets, the staminate 

 H'-2' long and \' thick, the pistillate 2|'-3' long, and \' thick; scales yellow or tawny, the 

 staminate oblong-obovate, rounded at the apex, covered with long white hairs, much longer 

 than the more acute pubescent scales of the pistillate ament: stamen 1, with an elongated 



