THE WILLOWS OF ALASKA 



315 



6. SALIX RICHARDSONI Hook. Richardson Willow. 

 Salix richardsoni Hook. F1. Bor. Am. 2: 147. /. 182. 1838-9. 



An erect bushy willow, from a meter or sometimes less to 2.5 

 meters in height, the branches stout and hairy, and retaining the dead 

 stipules of the preceding year's growth. These stipules are lanceolate, 

 glandular-serrate, and very large, commonly i to 2 cm. in length. 

 The catkins, which appear be- 

 fore the leaves, are sessile on one- 

 vear-old wood, stout, and closely 

 flowered, with densely long- 

 hairv scales but smooth long- 

 stvled ovaries and capsules. 

 The leaves are bright green, 

 smooth on both sides (the scant 

 cobwebby hairs present in the 

 unfolding leaf-buds very early 

 deciduous), paler and at ma- 

 turitv perhaps glaucous beneath, 

 oblong-ovate to obovate-lanceo- 

 late, apparently 3 to 6 cm. long 

 at maturit}', sparingly glandular- 

 denticulate, particularly toward 

 the base, on short woolly peti- 

 oles. This willow was orig- 

 inally collected by Richardson, 

 naturalist of Sir John Franklin's 

 expeditions, at Fort Franklin 

 on the Mackenzie River in the 

 interior of northern British 

 America. We now have speci- 

 mens from the vicinity of White 



Pass, Alaska, and from Port Clarence, indicating an extensive range in 

 the interior of Alaska and the interior of northwestern British America. 



Specimens have been examined as follows : 



Mackenzie. — At Fort Franklin, on Mackenzie River, Richardson. 

 One of the labels reads, " 7 feet high, erect and spreading." 



Tukon. — On the shore of Lake Bennett, J. B. Tarleton, 1899 (Nos. 

 12, in part, 14). Marked " 5 to 8 feet high." 



Port Clarence. — In a brushy area along a stream in the tundra, 

 Coville and Kearney (No. 1874). 



Fig. 19. Salix rtchardsoni \lo6k. '. a, 

 pistillate catkin, showing at the base two 

 persistent stipules of the preceding sea- 

 son's development, natural size; b, pis- 

 tillate flower, enlarged six diameters ; c, 

 leaf, natural size. 



