Shining Willow 



189 



ceolate, sometimes ovate-lanceolate, 6 to 12 cm. long, i to 3 cm. wide, long- 

 pointed, finely toothed, bright green and somewhat shining on the upper side, pale 

 or glaucous beneath, rather thin, deciduous in early autumn; their stalks are slen- 

 der, 6 to 15 mm. long, their stipules usually small and falling away early, those 

 of leaves of strong shoots sometimes large, reniform, 10 to 15 mm. wide. The 

 catitins appear on short, leafy branches of the season early in the spring, and are 

 from 3 to 8 cm. long; the staminate flowers have 3 to 9 stamens with filaments 

 somewhat hairy toward the base; the pistillate ones have a smooth-stalked, ob- 

 long-ovoid ovary, a short style and notched stigmas. The fruiting catkins elon- 

 gate to 6 to 10 cm.; the ovoid-conic capsules are 5 to 6 mm. long, their slender 

 stalks one half to two thirds as long. 



The wood is soft and weak, light brown, the sapwood nearly white; its specific 

 gravity is about 0.45 ; it is used in the Northwest for clapboards and for charcoal. 

 The tree is also called Almond leaf willow. 



8. SHINING WILLOW — Salix lucida Muhlenberg 



A strikingly lustrous-leaved willow, growing in wet soil, especially in and along 

 swamps, from Newfoundland to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, westward to Atha- 

 basca, Kentucky, and Nebraska. It is often a shrub, but sometimes forms a tree 

 8 meters tall, with a trunk diameter of 2 dm. 



The bark is smooth, or nearly so, brown or 

 reddish brown; the young twigs are orange- 

 brown, at first often hairy, soon becoming 

 smooth and shining; the winter buds are 

 smooth, pointed, 4 to 6 mm. long. The lan- 

 ceolate or ovate-lanceolate leaves are pointed, 

 often very long-pointed, 7 to 15 cm. long, 1.5 

 to 4 cm. wide, finely toothed, the teeth mostly 

 glandular, the upper surface smooth, dark 

 green, brightly shining, the under side at first 

 usually hairy, but becoming smooth and paler 

 green than the upper; the leaf -stalks are 

 more or less hairy, 6 to 12 mm. long, usually 

 glandular toward the base of the blade with 

 stalked glands; the stipules are glandular- Fic. 147. — Shining waiow. 



toothed, broad, sometimes 7 mm. wide, and fall away early or remain until summer. 

 The catkins, which vary from 2 to 6 cm. in length, appear in May on short, leafy 

 branchlets of the season, their axes hairy', their bracts blunt, sometimes toothed, 

 usually somewhat hairy; there are usually 5 stamens in the staminate flowers, with 

 filaments slightly hairy toward the base, and the pistillate flowers have a narrowly 

 ovoid ovary with nearly sessile notched stigmas. The fruiting catkins are 6 cm. 

 long or less, the narrowly ovoid capsules smooth, much longer than their stalks. 



