salioace^;. 299 



Obdbr lxxxiv. SALICACE/E. 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate simple stipulate leaves, and dioecious 

 flowers in terminal aments, each flower subtended by a membranous 

 bract, with no perianth. Stamens from two to several, central, or scat- 

 tered on a glandular disk. Ovary 1-celled, bearing 2 subsessile stigmas. 

 Fruit a 2-valved capsule, with many minute comose seeds. 



1. SALIX, Varro (Willow). Branches terete. Buds covered by a 

 single calyptriform scale. Bracts of the aments entire. Stigmas short. 

 Ovary and capsule mostly slender-conical. 



* Aments terminating leafy branchlets late in spring; stamens 

 3 — 5; scales of fruiting ament deciduous. 



1. S. nigra, Marsh. Small tree with rounded head; trunk slender, 

 with rough dark bark; branches brittle at base: leaves linear-lanceolate, 

 slenderly acuminate from near the base, sometimes falcate, 4 — 6 in. long, 

 closely serrate, green and glabrous on both sides, the midvein prominent; 

 stipules semicordate or 0: fertile aments becoming loose, scales slightly 

 toothed or entire, villous with crisp hairs: capsules glabrous, ovate-conical, 

 brownish; styles very short: stigma notched. — The common river bank 

 willow of the lower San Joaquin. 



2. S. laevigata, Bebb. Taller and more shapely tree, with more 

 elongated and symmetrical head: leaves larger, broader, lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 3 — 7 in. long, % — \% in. wide, 

 dark green glabrous and glossy above, paler beneath, minutely serrulate; 

 petioles downy-pubescent; stipules semicordate or 0: aments rather dense, 

 2—4 in. long, somewhat flexuous; scales pallid, villous, dentate; in the 

 staminate ament roundish-obovate, cucullate, in the pistillate narrower, 

 truncate, with 2 — 4 teeth at apex; capsule conical from a thick base, 

 acute, glabrous; style short or obsolete; stigmas emarginate.— Margins 

 of mountain streams. 



3. S. lasiandra, Benth. Shrub, or small tree with broad spreading 

 head; branohes yellow: leaves lanceolate, acute at base, the apex very 

 slenderly acuminate, sharply and closely serrulate; pale beneath: petioles 

 glandular at the upper end; stipules broadly semilunate, glandular- 

 serrate: scales of cylindric staminate ament thin, yellowish, more or less 

 toothed: stamens 5 or more: capsules lanceolate; stigmas bifid. — Low 

 valleys and plains, in moist places. 



* * .Stamens #, or 1 only. 



4. S. longifolia, Muhl. Biver-bank shrub, with slender stem and 

 branches: leaves linear to lanceolate, long-acuminate, sessile or nearly 

 so, usually 2 — 3 in. long, remotely mucronate-dentate or entire, seldom 

 nearly glabrous, more commonly from hoary to almost white with silky 



