Osier Willow 



201 



hairy when mature, the upper side bright green, the under surface pale green or 

 whitish; their densely hairy stalks are i cm. long or less, sometimes becoming less 

 hairy when old; the stipules are small and fall away early. The catkins appear 

 on twigs of the previous season, are 2.5 to 4 cm. long, with hairy persistent bracts, 

 and flower before the leaves unfold in April or May; the staminate flowers have 

 2 stamens with smooth filaments; the pistillate flowers have a slender-stalked, nar- 

 rowly ovoid-conic, smooth ovary and a slender style longer than the stigmas. The 

 capsules are smooth, stalked, about 5 mm. long. 



Its wood is soft, light brown, with a specific gravity of about 0.53. 



23. OSIER WILLOW — Salix viminalis LinnKus 



This small tree, native of Europe and Asia, has been planted in the eastern 

 United States for use in wickerware and for ornament, and has escaped from 

 cultivation and locally established itself from Newfoundland to Peimsylvania. 

 While often a shrub with long upright branches, it occasionally assumes arbores- 

 cent form, becoming 6 or 7 meters high, with a trunk 1.5 dm. thick. 



The bark is brown and nearly smooth, the branches long and wand-like, the 

 young twigs round, finely puberulent, becom- 

 ing smooth and yellow-green; the winter buds 

 are puberulent, pointed, 4 or 5 mm. long. 

 The narrowly linear-lanceolate leaves are 7 to 

 15 cm. long, 4 to 16 mm. wide, long-pointed 

 at the apex, narrowed at the base, entire- 

 margined, dark, dull green and smooth on the 

 upper side, densely and persistently silvery- 

 silky on the under surface; their stalks are 

 finely hairy, i cm. long or less, their stipules 

 narrowly lanceolate, early falling. The cat- 

 kins are nearly or quite stalkless on twigs of 

 the preceding season, 3 or 4 cm. long, and 

 flower befolt the leaves unfold in April or 

 May; their bracts are dark-colored at the 

 apex and silky-hairy; the staminate flowers 

 have 2 stamens, the pistillate ones a very 

 short-stalked woolly ovary, a slender style usually as long as the notched stigmas. 

 The ripe fruiting catkins are 6 cm. long or less, about i cm. thick, the very short- 

 stalked capsules densely silky-hairy, narrowly conic, 4 to 5 mm. long. 



This willow is considered the most valuable species for basketry, and is exten- 

 sively cultivated for that purpose in Europe and to some extent in the United 

 States. 



Fig. 163. — Osier Willow. 



