[110] 



WILLOW. 



Family: AMENTACEAE. [Translator's note: now SALICACEAE]. 

 Reproductive system: DlOECY\ DIANDRY. 



The white willow, Salix alba, Linn., is a tree about thirty feet tall. Its bark is gray, 

 fissured, and a little rough. The bark on the branches is smooth and greenish. The leaves 

 are lanceolate, finely dentate on the margins, smooth above with silky hair underneath. 

 The flowers grow in catkins. In the male catkins there is a flower underneath each scale, 

 which substitutes for the calyx. There are two stamens. On the female catkin the scale is 

 hairy and the ovary is surmounted with a short style and two stigmata. The fruit is a 

 bivalve capsule, polyspermous with one compartment. The seeds are small with a pappus. 



FLOWERS: in April and in May. 



RANGE: France and Europe. 



NOMENCLATURE. German, die weisseweide. Dutch, witte, wilg. English, the 

 white willow. Russian, wetla. 



The rosemary-leaved willow, Salix rosmarinifolia, Linn., is a small tree that I've 

 found to be very common along the banks of streams and small rivers of southern 

 Provence. Its leaves are entire or sometimes lightly dentate with margins that curve 

 downward. They are long, narrow, pointed, green above and whitish and cottony 

 underneath. The male flowers are in oblong catkins borne on reddish branches. They 

 develop before the leaves come out. The female flowers likewise form catkins, but they 

 are much longer than the male ones. There are two stamens. The fruit is a small capsule 

 with one compartment and two pointed valves. 



FLOWERS: in March. Its capsules open in May. 



