1 86 



The Willows 



to be the most reliable feature to distinguish the tree from the Black willow. The 

 leaves are narrowly lanceolate, finely toothed, bright green above, rather paler on 

 the under side than those of Salix nigra Marshall, 5 to 12 cm. long, their slender 

 stalks 5 to 10 mm. long, their stipules small and early deciduous. The catkins 

 appear in early spring on short, leafy twigs of the season, are 5 to 7 cm. long, and 

 densely many-flowered, their bracts blunt and very hairy; the staminate flowers 

 have from 3 to 5 stamens with filaments hairy toward the base; the pistillate flowers 

 have a smooth, conic-ovoid ovary with nearly sessile notched stigmas. In fruit 

 the pistillate catkins become 8 cm. long or less, the capsule about 5 mm. long, 

 its slender stalk less than half as long and several times longer than the gland. 



4. WARD'S WILLOW — Salix longipes Andersson 



Salix Wardi Bebb 



Ward's willow is a small tree, or often a mere shrub, occurring on gravelly 

 river-shores and river bottoms, from Maryland to Kentucky and Missouri, south 

 to Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and apparently into Chihuahua; it attains a 

 maximum height of about 10 meters, with a trunk 2 dm. in diameter, and was 

 formerly regarded as a variety of Salix nigra Marshall. 



Its bark is thick, brown, rough, broken into angular plates; the young twigs 



are more or less densely hairy, or quite smooth, 

 reddish brown, becoming gray to brown; the 

 winter buds are brown, pointed, shining, about 

 2 mm. long. The leaves are lanceolate to ob- 

 long-lanceolate, some of them occasionally 

 oblanceolate, 6 to 17 cm. long, i to 3 cm. wide, 

 finely or rather distantly toothed, varying to 

 almost entire-margined; they are bright green 

 and smooth on the upper side, pale and glau- 

 cous and often quite hairy on the under side; 

 their slender, hairy, or smooth stalks are 8 

 to 15 mm. long, their stipules early decidu- 

 ous, or sometimes remaining until summer. 

 The catkins are on short, leafy branchlets of 



the season, flowering at the northern range of 

 Fig. 143. — Ward's Willow. ., ..... 1 ■»«• • ■c^ -j 



•^ the species m April or early May, m flonda 



in December or January; they are 5 to 10 cm. long, with blunt, entire-margined, 

 hairy bracts; there are from 3 to 7 stamens in the staminate flowers, their fila- 

 ments hairy toward the base; the pistillate flowers have a sinooth, long-stalked 

 ovoid ovary with nearly sessile notched stigmas. The capsules are ovoid-conic, 

 5 to 6 mm. long, smooth, their slender stalks often as long as the capsule. 



The wood of Ward's willow is rather dark brown, weak and soft, the sap-wood 

 nearly white. 



