VOL 2. THER BLACK WILLOW. 271 
Sp. 16. Tue Brack Wiow. S. nigra. Marshall. 
Leaves figured in Michaux, Sylva, ITT, Plate 195, fig. 1, andin Annals of Bot- 
any, II, Plate 5, fig. 5. 
Leaves lanceolate, rounded at base when young, afterwards acute at each 
end, smoothish and green on both surfaces, the upper surface of the footstalk 
and mid-rib downy ; stipules roundish-heart-shaped, pointed, deciduous; aments 
rather long, lax, villous, flexuose, expanding withthe leaves ; filaments four to 
six, bearded at base; scales small, oblong, spreading, very hairy; ovaries on a 
short stalk, brown, ovate, smooth; style short, stigmas notched ; young shoots 
puberulent.— Hooker, Fl., Bor. Am. II, 148; Darlington, 559; Pursh, Il, 
614; Muhlenberg, Ann. of Bot., I, 65. 
A small tree, eight or ten feet high, growing usually on the 
edge of streams and lakes, and bending over the water. The 
twigs are light green, downy, rendered slightly angular by the 
continuance downwards of the vessels of the leafstalk. Leaves 
lanceolate, very downy and acute when young, afterwards 
Jengthening much, tapering to a long point, and becoming 
smooth, often somewhat falcate, serrate, the serratures glandu- 
lar, green on both surfaces, finally smooth, except the mid-rib 
above, and sometimes below. Footstalks short, hairy, some- 
times with ferruginous glands near the base of the leaf. 
Flowers in May; capsules ripe in June. This willow be- 
comes larger, further south. Darlington says it is, in Chester 
County, Pennsylvania, fifteen to twenty feet high, with a diam- 
eter of from eight to fifteen inches, and a dark-colored, rough 
bark, with a stem often crooked or leaning. 
Dr. Barratt says that, at Middletown, Connecticut, ‘The 
young leaves, in flowering time, are often subcordate at the 
base, and distinguishable by the white pubescence along the 
mid-rib, and on the young leaves. In Autumn, the leaves are 
glabrous, narrow, and mostly falcate. The fine twigs of this 
species are exceedingly brittle at the base. It is known to bas- 
ket-makers as the ‘ wicker willow,’ and is much esteemed for 
its great elasticity, in fine kinds of wicker work. It approaches 
the nearest of any of the native willows to S. triandra, of Eu- 
rope. This is the last of the willows to flower. ‘The capsules 
ripen in about a calendar month; and this asa general rule will 
apply to the rest of the willows, varying but little in ordinary 
