TREES GROWING NEAR WATER. 



59 



by rains or in many other ways. The fertile catkins can be 

 easily distinguished. They are generally the short, green ones 

 that develop soon after the sterile ones have been stripped of 

 their golden pollen. 



The seeds of the willowsare very small. Amid the tufts of 

 cotton-like hairs which surround them at the base it is almost 

 with difficulty that they are detected. When the pods open 

 their beaks to release them, the slightest breeze is able to carry 

 them aloft, and the air is often apparently filled with their lint. 

 Of the millions that are tossed about very few germinate and 

 become shrubs of trees. Nature is far seeing and, knowing the 

 many imminent perils of their existence, strews with a lavish 

 hand. 



BEBB'S WILLOW. LONG-BEAKED WILLOW. OCHRE- 

 FLOWERED WILLOW. {Plate XX.) 

 Sdltx Bebbiana. 



FAMILY 



SHAPE 



HEIGHT 



RANGE 



TIME OF 3L00M 



Willow. Builiy; branches^ 4-18 or 2$/i'et. Hudson Bay to Xeiv Jerseyy April, May, 

 erect. uortli wa rd and west wa rd. 



Bark: dark green or reddish. Branches: yellowish. T2vigs : reddish 

 brown ; pubescent when young. Stipules : semi-cordate. Leaves : simple : 

 alternate; elliptical or oblong-lanceolate, tapering into a point or blunt at 

 the apex and rounded or wedge-shaped at the base. E((ife : variable ; remotely 

 toothed ; wavy ; serrate or entire. Dull olive-green and smooth above, pale 

 bluish green ?nd covered with silky hairs underneath, becoming glabrous ; thin. 

 Fiinvers : growing in sessile catkins and appearing with the leaves. Staminate 

 catkins : long ; obovate ; pale yellow at maturity. Pistillate catkins : rather 

 short and with flowers growing loosely in them. 



In earliest spring, almost as soon as the sap has begun to 

 flow under the bark of this willow, its catkins hasten to 

 develop and glisten in contrast to the bareness of the earth. 

 The leaves do not fully unfold until some time later. Although 

 the flowers in these strange little catkins have no beautifully- 

 coloured envelopes, the rich yellow anthers of the staminate 

 blossoms can hardly fail to attract the attention. Thousands 

 of bees are seen buzzing about them. This species is one that 

 is a native of America, and it occurs either as a shrub or as a 



