=1. SÀLIX.= The Willows.
Trees or shrubs (occasionally herbaceous) with usually clustered teims,
twigs round; leaf-blades lanceolate and long-acuminate or
elliptic-lanceolate and short pointed in all Indiana tree species,
finely toothed or nearly entire; catkins appearing before (precocious),
with (coetaneous), or after the leaves (serotinous); each pistillate
flower with a little gland at the base of the pedicel on the inside.
A large genus of several hundred species varying from tiny shrubby or
subherbaceous plants scarcely an inch in height to 0.5 m. (2 feet) or
more in diameter, in alluvial lowlands; occurring under Indiana
conditions from cold bogs and river banks to dry sand dunes. Willows are
used for many purposes, among them ornament, shade, hedges, posts,
poles, mattresses, revetments to protect levees, baskets, fish-weirs,
whistles, etc., while the wood is used for charcoal, which is especially
prized for gunpowder making, and the bark is used for tanning and
furnishes salicin, which is used in medicine as a substitute for quinine
and as a tonic and febrifuge.
Small to large trees; leaves narrowly to broadly lanceolate,
mostly long pointed, finely and rather closely toothed;
flowers appearing with the leaves; capsules not hairy.
Native trees; leaves green on both sides (No. 1) or white
(glaucous) beneath (No. 2), and then with very long
points and long slender twisted petioles which are
never glandular; stamens 3-5-7 or more.
Twigs dark green, spreading; leaves narrowly
lanceolate, green on both sides; petioles
short 1 S. nigra.
Twigs yellowish, somewhat drooping; leaves broadly
lanceolate, glaucous beneath; petioles long,
twisted 2 S. amygdaloides.
European trees, cultivated for ornament and use;
leaves always glaucous beneath; stamens always 2.
Teeth on edge of leaf 8-10 to each cm. (20-25 to
the inch); petioles usually glandular;
capsules almost sessile 3 S. alba.
Teeth on edge of leaf 6-8 per cm. (15-20 to the
inch); petioles usually glandular; pedicels
0.5-1 mm. long 4 S. fragilis.
Shrubs or rarely small trees; leaves elliptical or
oblanceolate, short pointed; margin entire or
coarsely wavy or shallow-toothed; flowers before
the leaves; stamens 2; capsules long, hairy.
Twigs and leaves not hairy; leaves thin 5 S. discolor.
Twigs and sometimes the lower surface of the leaves
densely hairy, leaves thicker 6 S. discolor
eriocephala.
[Illustration: Plate 10.