SALIC ACEAE. 117 



SALICACEAE. Willow Family. 



Deciduous trees or shrubs of rapid growth, light wood and bitter bark. 

 Leaves simple, alternate, with stipules. Flowers dioecious, arranged in cat- 

 kins, these falling off as a whole, the staminate after shedding the pollen, 

 the pistillate after ripening of the fruit and dispersion of the seeds. Bracts 

 (or scales) of the catkin scale-like. Calyx and corolla none. Stamens 1 to 

 many. Ovary 1 -colic. 1 ; stigmas 2 to 4. Fruit a 2 to 4-valved capsule enclos- 

 ing many seeds furnished with a tuft of hairs at base. 



Scales entire or merely denticulate, persistent or sometimes deciduous; flowers without 

 disk; stamens usually 1 to 5 1. Salix. 



Scales fimbriate or lacerate, caducous; flowers with a broad disk; stamens usually 

 numerous 2. Populus. 



1. SALIX L. Willow. 

 Trees or shrubs with mostly narrow short-petioled leaves. Winter buds 

 covered by a single scale. Catkins mostly erect, appearing before or with the 

 loaves. Staminate flowers with 1 to 9 stamens and 1 or 2 little glands. ■ Pis- 

 tillate flowers with a gland at the base of the ovary. Stigmas 2, short. Cap- 

 sule usually 2-valved. (Classical Latin name of the Willow.) 



Stamens 3 to 9, their filaments hairy or woolly below; style short; stigmas roundish, 

 subentire; scales pale or yellowish, in the pistillate catkin more or less deciduous by 

 maturity; capsules glabrous, pediceled; trees, the trunk bark rough. 

 Petioles with wart-like glands at summit; leaves lanceolate, long-pointed; stipules usual- 

 ly present, roundish; catkins in bud tapering, in flower usually straight, their 



scales erect 1. S. lasiandra. 



Petioles not glandular; stipules usually absent; catkins in bud cylindric. 



Leaves broadly lanceolate, acute, shining green above, usually glaucous beneath; stam- 

 inate catkins curving, their scales reflexed or spreading 2. 5. laevigata. 



Leaves very narrow, nearly alike on both faces, finely serrulate, often curving to- 

 wards apex 3. S. nigra. 



Stamens 2, their filaments woolly or hairy below; scales pale, somewhat deciduous; catkins 

 on short leafy branchlets, often clustered; leaves linear or lanceolate; capsule sessile 

 or nearly so; shrubs, the trunk bark smooth. 

 Stigmas linear, raised on a distinct style; capsule usually silky; leaves silvery or 



green, entire 4. S. sessilifolia. 



Stigmas oblong or roundish, sessile; capsule glabrous; leaves green, remotely serrulate. 



5. S. longifolia. 



Stamens 2 (rarely 1), their filaments glabrous; stigmas entire or notched, rarely parted 



into linear lobes; scales usually black or dark-colored, mostly persistent; trunk bark 



usually smooth. 



Capsules glabrous; leaves dark green above, white-pubescent beneath; catkins sessile, 



leafless; filaments more or less united; small tree or shrub 6. 5 lasiolepis. 



Capsules tomentose, silky or puberulent. 



Style none; catkins short and dense, their scales black, with white hairs; leaves 



obovate, usually glabrate 7. S. flwescens. 



Style evident; catkins long and slender; stamens 1, or if 2 the filaments partly 

 united; leaves conspicuously silky beneath 8. -b". sitcliensis. 



1. S. lasiandra Benth. Yellow' Willow. Tree 20 to 45 ft. high, the 

 trunk with brown roughly fissured bark; one-winter-old branchlets yellowish; 

 mature leaves lanceolate with long tapering or very slender point, 4 to 7 in. 

 long, % to l 1 /^ in. wide; petioles 3 to 9 lines long, glandular at the upper 

 end; stipules on vigorous shoots conspicuous, orbicular, 5 to 12 lines broad; 

 staminate catkins l ] /4 to 3 in. long, usually straight; pistillate catkins l 1 /* 

 to 214 in. long; scales erect; stamens 4 to 9 ; ovary glabrous. 



Banks of living streams throughout the Coast Ranges, Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin valleys, and Sierra Nevada southward to Southern California and 

 northward to British Columbia. 



2. S. laevigata Bebb. Red Willow. Tree- 20 to 40 ft. high; one-winter- 



