VIII. 2. PURSH’S WILLOW. 203 
eter. The trunk is covered with a very rough, scaly bark. 
The recent branches are of a yellowish green, somewhat 
downy, the older ones grayish. The leaves are on a very short 
footstalk, silky-downy above. They are very long and narrow, 
scythe-shaped, lanceolate, rounded or somewhat acute at base, 
tapering gradually to an extremely long point, finely glandular- 
serrate, smooth and shining, and of the same color on both sur- 
faces, which are, by the twisting of the petiole, presented almost 
equally to the ight. The mid-rib is slightly prominent beneath 
and somewhat silky above, and sometimes beneath. The ve- 
nation is minutely reticulate, the secondary nerves scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from the veins. Hach leaf, before expanding, 
closely embraces those within it, and is, at that time, covered 
with a soft, silken down. The stipules are very conspicuous, 
semi-lunar or ear-shaped, auricled, pointed above, nearly em- 
bracing the new shoot, and glandular-serrate. The branches 
slender, extremely brittle at base, even when an inch in diam- 
eter, extremely tough above. Aments expanding with the 
leaves, and borne on the end of a short, leafy branchlet, two 
mches long, and having, on its lower half, four or five short 
leaves. On the female ament. the scales are soon gone, exposing 
the brownish, downy, but not silky stem: the seed-vessels are 
nearly sessile, ovate acuminate, yellowish green, finally light- 
brown, terminated by the two nearly sessile, black stigmas; 
ripe, in Worcester County, in the beginning of July, or before. 
In Middletown, according to Dr. Barratt, the flowers expand 
May 18, and the capsules are ripe June 18. He says that this 
tree is there smaller than the black willow, and the twigs are 
finer; and that the twigs are equally valuable, for fine wicker 
work, with those of that willow. Pursh’s willow is a more 
northern tree than the black. 
The effect of the mass of foliage of Pursh’s willow, in the 
situations in which it is found, is striking and agreeable. The 
softness of the light reflected from it, without the changeable- 
ness, distinguishes it from the other willows; and the great 
length and slenderness of the stem give a peculiarly gentle 
motion to the whole mass, when acted on by the wind. 
36 
