(WILLOW FAMILY SALICACEAE) 473 
The species may concern us because they are useful for food, 
fibers, lumber, medicine, etc., or because they are weeds which 
hinder the growth of cultivated plants, poison live stock, or do 
damage in other ways. 
Beginning with one of the lower families of the Dicotyledons, 
a number of families of Angiosperms having species of consid- 
erable economic importance are discussed in the following pages. 
Fic. 415.— The flowers of a Willow. Above, at the left, a staminate 
catkin, and below, at the left, a staminate flower, showing the bract and sta- 
mens; above, at the right, a pistillate catkin, and below, at the right, a pistil- 
late flower, showing the bract and pistil. After Burns and Otis. 
Archichlamydeae 
Apetalae 
Willow Family (Salicaceae). — This family, although it is not 
the lowest family of the Dicotyledons, stands well toward 
the bottom of the series. To this family belong the Willows 
and Poplars. The flowers are unisexual and simple in type. 
The plants are dioecious and bear their apetalous flowers in 
scaly spikes or catkins (Fig. 415). A flower consists of a pistil 
