× Populus Jackii Sarg., believed to be a hybrid of the northern Cottonwood with P. tacamahacca, with characters intermediate between those of its supposed parents, grows spontaneously near the mouth of the Chateaugay River and at Beauharnois, Province of Quebec, and at South Haven, Michigan, and is now occasionally cultivated.
15. [Populus Palmeri] Sarg.
Leaves thin, ovate, gradually or abruptly contracted at apex into a narrow acuminate entire point, cuneate or rounded at the broad base, finely serrate with incurved teeth, ciliate on the margins when they unfold, otherwise glabrous, 2½′—5′ long and 1½′—2¼′ wide; petioles slender, glabrous, 1½′—2½′ in length. Flowers not seen. Fruit: aments glabrous, 12—15 cm. long; fruit ovoid, obtuse, slightly pitted, puberulous, thin-walled, 4-valved, ¼′—⅓′ long, the disk deeply lobed; pedicel slender, ¼′—⅓′ in length.
A tree 60° tall, with a straight trunk 3° in diameter, erect smooth pale branches forming an open pyramidal head, the lower branches smaller, horizontal or pendulous, and slender glabrous branchlets light reddish brown early in the season, becoming pale grayish brown in their second year. Bark pale, 3′—4′ thick, deeply divided by wide fissures into narrow ridges.
Distribution. In moist fertile soil near springs, at the base of high chalky bluffs of Nueces Cañon of the upper Nueces River, Uvalde County, growing with Salix nigra var. Lindheimeri, Carya pecan, Morus rubra and Ulmus crassifolia, and at Strawn, Palo Pinto County, Texas.
2. SALIX L. Willow.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, scaly bark, soft wood, slender terete tough branchlets often easily separated at the joints, and winter-buds covered by a single scale of 2 coats, the inner membranaceous, stipular, rarely separable from the outer, inclosing at its base 2 minute opposite lateral buds alternate with 2 small scale-like caducous leaves coated with long pale or rufous hairs. Leaves variously folded in the bud, alternate, simple, lanceolate, obovate, rotund or linear, penniveined; petioles sometimes glandular at the apex, and more or less covering the bud, in falling leaving U-shaped or arcuate elevated leaf-scars displaying the ends of 3 small equidistant fibro-vascular bundles; stipules oblique, serrate, small and deciduous, or foliaceous and often persistent, generally large and conspicuous on vigorous young branches, leaving in falling minute persistent scars. Flowers in sessile or stalked aments, terminal and axillary on leafy branchlets; scales of the ament lanceolate, concave, rotund or obovate, entire or glandular-dentate, of uniform color or dark-colored toward the apex, more or less hairy, deciduous or persistent; disk of the flower nectariferous, composed of an anterior and posterior or of a single posterior gland-like body; stamens 3—12 or 1 or 2, inserted on the base of the scale, with slender filaments free or rarely united and usually light yellow, glabrous, or hairy toward the base, and small ovoid or oblong anthers generally rose-colored before anthesis, becoming orange or purple; ovary sessile or stipitate, conic, obtuse to subulate-rostrate, glandular at the base, glabrous, tomentose or villose, with an abbreviated style divided into 2 short recurved retuse or 2-parted stigmas; ovules 4—8 on each of the 2 placentas. Fruit an acuminate 1-celled capsule separating at maturity into 2 recurved valves. Seeds minute, narrowed at the ends, dark chestnut-brown or nearly black; cotyledons oblong.
Salix inhabits the banks of streams and low moist ground, the alpine summits of mountains, and the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the northern hemisphere, ranging south in the New World, with a few species, through the West Indies and Central America to Brazil, and the Andes of Chile, and in the Old World to Madagascar, southern Africa, the Himalayas, Burmah, the Malay peninsula, Java, and Sumatra. Of the 160 or 170 species which are now recognized about seventy are found in North America. Of these twenty-four attain the size and habit of trees, the others being small and sometimes prostrate shrubs. Of exotic species, Salix alba L., and Salix fragilis L., important European timber-trees, are now generally naturalized in the northeastern states. The flexible tough branches of several species are used in making baskets; the bark is rich in tannic acid and is used in tanning leather and yields salicin, a bitter principle valuable as a tonic. Many of the species are cultivated as ornamental trees.
Salix is the classical name of the Willow-tree.