SALICACEJE. (WILLOW FAMILY.) 429 



length only on the petioles and veins beneath ; fruiting aments oblong ; lobes of 

 the bracts widely spreading, acute, smooth. Cool shady banks in the upper 

 parts of Georgia, and northward. March. A middle-sized tree, with dark 

 brown rugged bark, and close and fine-grained wood. Young twigs spicy and 

 aromatic. 



2. ALNITS, Tourn. ALDER. 



Sterile aments elongated, drooping. Bracts peltate, 5-bracteolate, 1 - 3-flow- 

 ered. Calyx 4-parted or (in No. 2) scale-like. Stamens 4 : anthers 2-cclled. 

 Fertile aments short, erect. Bracts fleshy, 2-flowered. Calyx of four minute 

 scales, adherent to the bracts. Bracts of the fruiting ament woody, persistent. 

 Nut angled or winged. Shrubs or small trees. Leaves petioled, serrate, the 

 stalked buds covered with a single scale. Fertile aments racemed. 



1. A. serrulata, Ait. Leaves obovate, obtuse or abruptly pointed, serru- 

 late, commonly pubescent beneath, acute at the base, short-petioled ; stipules 

 oval, obtuse ; fruiting aments ovoid, short-peduncled ; fruit ovate, wingless. 

 Banks of streams, Florida, and northward. Jan. -March. Shrub 3 -12 

 high. Leaves 2' -4' long, thickish, and partly persistent at its southern limits. 

 Calyx of the sterile flowers- 4-parted. 



2. A. viridis, DC. Leaves oval, rounded at both ends, slightly oblique at 

 the base, finely and sharply serrate, softly pubescent on the lower surface, or only 

 on the veins and petiole , stipules ovate ; calyx of the sterile flowers scale-like ; 

 fruiting aments ovoid, long-peduncled ; fruit winged. High mountains of North 

 Carolina, and northward. April. A low much branched shrub. Leaves 

 1'- 2' long. 



ORDER 131. SAL.ICACEJE. (WILLOW FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, with soft wood, alternate simple stipulate leaves, and 

 dioecious amentaceous flowers, destitute of calyx and corolla, each solitary 

 in the axil of a simple bract. Stamens 2 - many. Ovary 1-celled or im- 

 perfectly 2-celled, with numerous erect anatropous ovules in each cell. 

 Styles 2, very short, more or less united: stigmas 2-lobed. Fruit a 

 2-valved many-seeded capsule. Seeds minute, clothed with long silky 

 hairs. Albumen none. Cotyledons elliptical, flattened. Radicle point- 

 ing downward. 



1. SALIX, Tourn. WILLOW. 



Bracts of the aments entire. Flowers each with 1-2 small glands. Stamens 

 2-6, free, or their filaments cohering at the base. Stigmas short, 2-lobed. 

 Leaves commonly narrow, short-petioled. Stipules scale-like and deciduous, 

 or leafy and persistent. Buds covered with a single scale. Aments mostly 

 erect, appearing with or before the leaves. 



