Desert Willow 835 



3 dm. long, acuminately pointed, truncate, or heart-shaped at the base, wavy or 

 angularly lobed on the margin, very hairy when young, becoming smooth and 

 dark green above, paler and softly hairy beneath; the leaf-stalk is often nearly 

 as long as the blade. The flowers, appearing from May to July, are 2 to 3 cm. 

 long, in open, few-flowered panicles 12 to 15 cm. across. The calyx is purpKsh, 

 its lobes abruptly taper-pointed ; the corolla is white, sUghtly blotched with yellow 

 and an occasional purple spot, 6.5 by 7.5 cm. across; its tube is narrowly bell- 

 shaped, the limb sUghtly obhque, 2-hpped, the lower lip notched. The fruit is 

 linear, round, 3.5 to 5 dm. long, relatively slender, its walls thick, the partition 

 thickened in the middle; the numerous seeds are 2.5 cm. broad, about 8 mm. long, 

 light brown, the wings fringed with soft hairs. 



The wood is soft, weak, coarse-grained, and pale brown; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.42 ; it is very durable in contact with the soil and water, on which 

 account it is a favorite for railroad ties, to supply which, large tracts in the prairie 

 regions of the west are now planted with these trees. It is also used for fence- 

 posts and furniture as well as inside finish of buildings. 



Largely planted for timber, it is also much used for ornamentation and shade 

 in parks and streets on account of its dense, dark foliage and profusion of white 

 flowers. 



11. DESERT WILLOW 



GENUS CHILOPSIS D. DON 



Species Chilopsis linearis (Cavanilles) de CandoUe 



Bignonia linearis Cavanilles 



DECIDUOUS-LEAVED, small tree or shrub, common on stream 

 banks and in low places in the desert regions from Texas to Arizona, 

 Utah, southern California and adjacent Mexico. It is also called the 

 Texas flowering willow or Flowering willow, and attains a maximum 

 height of 9 meters, with a trunk diameter of 3 dm. 



The trunk is short and contorted, the branches slender. The bark is about 6 

 mm. thick, ^ith irregular ridges and thick scales. The twigs are smooth or hairy 

 and more or less sticky, light brown, becoming dark red-brown or gray with age. 

 The leaves are numerous, opposite or alternate, linear, i to 3 dm. long, taper- 

 pointed at each end, entire margined, bright green, somewhat glutinous; the leaf- 

 stalk is very short and slender; they are without stipules. The flowers appear 

 from April to August; they are perfect, showy, disposed in terminal racemes or 

 thyrsoid panicles 6 to 10 cm. long, hairy and subtended by narrow bracts ; the calyx 

 is thick, 2 -parted and more or less 5 -toothed; the white corolla is tinged with yel- 

 low or purple, funnelform, somewhat 2-lipped, the upper Up 2-lobed, the lower 3- 

 lobed, the lobes nearly orbicular, about i cm. broad, crisp and wavy-margined; the 

 4 stamens are in 2 pairs with a staminode between, and joined to the corolla-tube ; 

 the anthers are spreading; the ovary is sessile, the style fiUform, terminated by 2 



