616 M /RICACE^E myrica 



8ALIX 



Stamens 4-8. Pistillate ovoid or subglobose : Ovary subtended 

 by 2-4 bractlets. Fruit a globose or ovoid wax-coated drupe. 



M. Gale L. Sp. 1021. An erect shrub 4-8 feet hi?h with dark brown 

 twigs : leaves deciduous, oblanceolate, obtuse and dentate at the apex. 

 narrowed to a cuneate entire base, short-petioled, dark green and glabrous 

 above, pale and puberulent or glabrous beneath, 1-3 inches long unfolding 

 after the flowers ; staminate aments linear-oblong, 6-10 lines long : pistill- 

 ate aments ovoid-oblong, obtuse, about 4 lines long and 2 lines in diameter 

 in fruit, their bracts imbricated; drupe resinous waxy, not longer than the 

 2 ovate persistent bractlets which clasp it on each side and are adnate to its 

 base. Along the coast, Oregon to Alaska and the Atlantic States. 



M. Californica Cham. Linn, vi, 535. An evergreen shrub or small tree 

 2-30 feet high of erect compact habit, leaves coriaceous, persistent usually, 

 slightly tomentose beneath, dark green above, oblanceolate, 2-4 inches 

 long, acute, attenuate below to a short petiole, entire, or serrate above the 

 base: aments simple or somewhat compound, 3-5 lines long; the small very 

 broadly ovate obtuse bracts more or less lacerately ciliate, especially near 

 the base : staminate flowers few ; stamens 5-15, the filaments united into 

 an exserted panicle : bractlets usually 2, oblong, ciliate : fruit purple, papil- 

 lose, thinly coated with grayish-white wax, 2 lines in diameter. In wet 

 places along the coast, Washington to California. 



Order XCII SALICACE^E Lindl. Nat. Syst. ed. 2. 186. 



Trees or shrabs with bitter bark, brittle twigs, alternate leaves 

 with stipules and small dioecious flowers in axillary aments that 

 appear with or before the leaves. Flowers solitary in the axil of 

 each bract: the staminate consisting of one to numerous stamens 

 inserted on the receptacle, subtended by a gland-like or cup-like 

 disk : filaments more or less united : anthers 2-celled, tbe cells 

 longitudinally dehiscent. Pistillate flowers of a sessile or short- 

 stipilate 1-celled ovary subtended by a minute disk, with 2-4 pa- 

 rietal placentae and numerous anatropous ovules. Style short, 

 slender, or almost wanting. Stigmas 2, simple or 2-cleft. Fruit 

 a 2-4-valved capsule. Seeds small, without albumen, covered 

 with a coma of dense long silky hairs. Cotyledons plano-convex. 



1 Salix Buds with a single scale: bracts entire: flowers with small 



glands : disk none : stamens few : stigmas short. 



2 Populus Buds with several scales : bracts lacerate : flowers with a 

 broad cup-shaped disk : stamens numerous : stigmas elongated. 



1 SALIX L. Sp. 1016. (Willow.) 



Trees or shrubs with terete branchlets and small flowers in 

 aments. Buds covered with a single scale, with an adherent 

 membrane within. Bracts of the aments entire. Disk gland-like, 

 small or minute. Staminate aments dense, erect, spreading or 

 drooping. Staminate flowers with 1-12, mostly 2, stamens, their 

 filaments distinct or sometimes united. Pistillate aments usually 

 erect or spreading. Ovary sessile or short-stipitate. Style filiform 

 or wanting. Stigmas 2, entire or 2-cleft. Capsule mostly 2-valved. 



§ 1 Trees. Bud-scales yellowish, falling before the maturity 

 of the fertile aments. Filaments hairy below. 



