CLASS XXIJ, ORDER I. ] SALIX. 1227 
CLASS XXII. 
DIOECTA. 
(Stamens and Pistils in scparate flowers, on different plants ). 
ORDER I. 
DIAN'DRIA. (Stamens one to five, mostly two). 
GENUS I. SA'LIX.*+—Liny. Willow Sallow and Osier. 
Nat. Ord. Satrcin’Ex. Rticun. 
Gey. Cuar. Flowers in catkins, the scales imbricated, and a gland 
surrounds the stamens and ovary. Barren flowers with from 
two to five stamens, sometimes the anthers are united. fertile 
* The genus Salix comprises a numerous and most difficult tribe of 
plants. They are trees and shrubs, but mostly the latter, varying in height 
from two inches to fifty or sixty feet. They are principally confined to the 
temperate parts of Europe and America; all have round flexible branches, 
simple deciduous leaves, with a pair of stipules at the base of the footstalks, 
the catkins appearing early, and are either erect or pendulous. The florets 
are separate, that is, the barren florets on one plant, and the fertile on 
another of the same species. They are generally quick growing plants, 
though some on their native mountains do not increase more than an inch 
during the year. The wood is light, soft, and as well as many other parts 
of the plant applied to numerous useful purposes, as particularized under 
the different species. Sir W. J. Hooker, after speaking of the utility of 
these plants, says, “‘ A correct knowledge of the species, then, is of primary 
importance; no less to the cultivator than to the botanist, yet,” says this 
talented and experienced author, “there is not in the whole range of the 
vegetable creation a genus liable to more variation at different periods of 
growth, in different soils and situation, and under different circumstances, 
so that the accurate determination of its species has baffled the researches 
of the ablest botanists.” The arrangement of the genus under different 
heads or groups, and the fixing the bounds of the species and their varieties 
are difficulties which all botanists have encountered in this genus, diffi- 
culties arising not only from the variations of the different parts of the same 
species, growing under various circumstances, but according to Koch., form, 
“* the great number of hybrids, the existence of which in the genus Salix, 
no one can doubt.’ The most esteemed systems of arranging this genus 
are that of Mr. Borrer, as given in Hooker's British Flora, ed. 3rd and 4th, 
and of whom Sir W. J. Hooker remarks, ‘No one has ever studied the 
willows, whether in a growing or a dried state, more deeply, or with a less 
prejudiced mind;” and that of Professor Koch. in his pamphlet, De 
Salicebus Europeis Commentatis, published 1828, and followed by Lindley 
7 T 
