74 
RIVER WILLOW. 
wise on the banks of Lewis River of the Shoshonee, 
accompanying our Long-leaved Willow, both of which 
continue almost uninterruptedly to occupy the banks 
and bars of all the Western streams to the Oregon, 
and proceed along that river to the borders of the 
Pacific. 
In this remarkably fluviatile species, the leaves of 
the very young plants are somewhat pinnatifid, and 
at all times the serratures, rather distant, are sinuated 
and very sharp or spinulosely acute. The branches are 
brownish and very full of leaves. The leaves two to 
three inches long, are seldom more than two. lines wide, 
except in the young shoots, when they are twice that 
breadth. The branches producing the male flowers are 
as short as usual, bearing only three or four small 
leaves; the catkins are narrow, solitary, and rather short, 
and come out with the opening of the leaves. In the 
female plant the inflorescence is similar with that of the 
male, but there is also produced a later growth of cat- 
kins, which terminate proper divided branchlets. The 
scales of the female catkin are oblong and densely 
bearded below, the germ is smooth, with four sessile 
stigmas as in S. longifolia. The young leaves are at first 
somewhat hoary and pubescent, with minute hairs; the 
young plants have also often pubescent foliage. 
We have met with the Salix longifolia on the banks 
of the Arkansa, and it greatly resembles the present 
species, but differs in producing distinct stipules, in the 
minute serratures, and above all in the pubescent cap- 
sule and elongation of the catkin. The leaves are also 
generally broader, and it is said to grow only about 
two feet high. 
