SALICACEAE 
Weeping Willow. Napoleon’s Willow 
‘Salix babylonica L. 
HABIT.—A tree 40-50 feet high, with a short, stout trunk 
3-4 feet in diameter; the long, slender branchlets, often many 
feet in length, droop in graceful festoons, giving to the tree a 
weeping habit. . 
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 3-7 inches long, %4-% inch 
broad; linear to linear-lanceolate, long-pointed; finely sharp- 
serrate; thin and firm; glabrous, dark green above, paler beneath; 
petioles %4 inch or less in length, glandular above, often hairy. 
FLOWERS.—April-May, with the leaves; dioecious; borne 
in slender, nearly glabrous catkins 1-2 inches long; calyx 0; 
corolla 0; scales ovate-lanceolate, slightly hairy; ovary ovoid- 
conical, very short-stalked, with stigmas longer than the style. 
Staminate trees apparently do not occur in the United States. 
FRUIT.—May-June; 1-celled, narrow-ovoid, sessile capsule, 
about 346 inch long, containing many minute seeds which are 
furnished with long, silky, white hairs. 
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud absent; lateral buds nar- 
now-conical, sharp-pointed, somewhat flattened, brownish, %-%4 
inch long. 
BARK.—Twigs glabrous, olive-green; thick and gray on 
old trunks, rather smooth, or irregularly fissured into shallow, 
firm ridges. 
WOOD.—Light, soft, weak, close-grained, light brown, with 
thick, whitish sapwood. 
NOTES.—A native of Europe and Asia. Often grown in 
cemeteries. Easily propagated by cuttings. Rapid of growth in 
rich, damp soil. Sometimes winter-killed because the wood is 
not ripened. 
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