SALICACE^: 



177 



broader on the stamiuate plant; their scales oblong-obovate, erose and denticulate 

 above the middle, pale yellow-green and villous on the back, with pale silky hairs, 

 those of the staminate ament rather broader than those of the pistillate; stamens 

 2, with free glabrous filaments; ovary oblong-cylindrical, short-stalked, villous, 

 crowned with a nearly sessile bifid stigma. Fruit elongated, cylindrical, bright red- 

 brown, more or less villous, about \' long. 



A tree, occasionally 30 high, with a trunk 1 in diameter, slender erect branches 

 forming a narrow head, and slender branchlets coated at first with hoary pubescence 

 gradually deciduous during the summer, becoming reddish brown; or often, espe- 

 cially at the south, reduced to a tall or a low shrub. Winter-buds narrow, ovate, 

 acute, nearly |' long. Bark nearly % thick, dark brown, slightly fissured and cov- 



ered with thick irregular closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, 

 light red, with thin nearly white sapwood. 



Distribution. Banks of streams from the shores of Puget Sound, southward 

 through western Washington and Oregon and along the western slopes and foothills 

 of the Sierra Nevada to the valleys and foothills of the coast ranges of southern 

 California, where it is one of the commonest Willows. 



10. Salix taxifolia, H. B. K. Willow. 



Leaves involute in the bud, linear-lanceolate, narrowed at the ends, acute, slightly 

 falcate and mucronate at the apex, entire and obscurely dentate above the middle, 

 coated as they unfold with long soft white hairs, at maturity pale gray-green, slightly 

 puberulous, '-!' long, fa'-\' wide, with slender midribs, thin arcuate veins, and 

 thickened slightly revolute margins; their petioles stout, puberulous, rarely ^'long; 

 stipules ovate, acute, scarious, minute, caducous. Flowers: aments densely flowered, 

 oblong-cylindrical or subglobose, \'-\' long, terminal, or terminal and axillary on the 

 staminate plant, on short leafy branches; their scales oblong or obovate, rounded 

 or acute and sometimes apiculate at the apex, coated on the outer surface with hoary 

 tomentum and pubescent or glabrous on the inner; stamens 2, with free filaments 

 hairy below the middle; ovary ovate-conical, short-stalked or subsessile, villous, with 

 pale hairs, with nearly sessile deeply emarginate stigmas. Fruit cylindrical, long- 

 pointed, bright red-brown, more or less villous, short-stalked, about \' long. 



