POPLAR. 259 
the leaves. A very hardy tree or shrub of graceful habit attain- 
ing a height of twenty feet. More difficult to propagate than 
most willows, and occasionally blights severely. 
Salix purpurea pendula. (S. xafoleon’s.) Napoleon 
Willow. 
Leaves one and one-half to two inches Jong, linear, finely 
serrate, green and shining above, dull bluish green beneath; 
petioles short. Young twigs and petioles reddish. A spreading“ 
shrub, but when top-worked on an upright stock forms a very 
Figure 54. Napoleon Willow, top-worked on White Willow. 
pretty tree, with spreading pendulous branches. Hardy at the 
Minnesota Experiment Station. Known among nurserymen as 
New American Willow, but often worked on too tender stocks. 
Genus POPULUS. 
Leaves alternate, broad, more or less heart shaped or ovate. 
Flowers dioecious. Individual trees bearing staminate and pis- 
tillate catkins, and also catkins having the two kinds of flowers 
mixed together occasionally occur. Flowers appear before the 
leaves in long, usually drooping, lateral, cylindrical catkins, the 
scales of which are furnished with a fringed margin; the calyx 
is represented by an oblique cup-shaped disk, with entire mar- 
gin; stamens usually numerous; ovary short; stigmas long, two- 
lobed; fruit described under family Salicacee, ripening before the 
