Part 18

=Salix fragilis and Salix alba.=

The fragilis and alba group of genus Salix gives rise to puzzling questions of determination and nomenclature. Pure fragilis and pure alba are perfectly distinct plants, fragilis occasional, locally rather common, and alba rather rare within the limits of the United States. Each species has varieties; the two species hybridize with each other and with native species, and the hybrids themselves have varietal forms. This group affords a tempting field for the manufacture of species and varieties, about most of which so little is known that any attempt to assign a definite range would be necessarily imperfect and misleading. The range as given below in either species simply points out the limits within which any one of the various forms of that species appears to be spontaneous.

=Salix fragilis, L.=

CRACK WILLOW. BRITTLE WILLOW.

=Habitat and Range.=--In low land and along river banks. Indigenous in southwestern Asia, and in Europe where it is extensively cultivated; introduced into America probably from England for use in basket-making, and planted at a very early date in many of the colonial towns; now extensively cultivated, and often spontaneous in wet places and along river banks, throughout New England and as far south as Delaware.

=Habit.=--Tree often of great size; attaining a maximum height of 60-90 feet; head open, wide-spreading; branches except the lowest rising at a broad angle; branchlets reddish or yellowish green, smooth and polished, very brittle at the base. In 1890 there was standing upon the Groome estate, Humphreys Street, Dorchester, Mass., a willow of this species about 60 feet high, 28 feet 2 inches in girth five feet from the ground, with a spread of 110 feet (Typical Elms and other Trees of Massachusetts, p. 85).

=Bark.=--Bark of the trunk gray, smooth in young trees, in old trees very rough, irregularly ridged, sometimes cleaving off in large plates.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds about 1/3 inch long, reddish-brown, narrow-conical. Leaves simple, alternate, 2-6 inches long, smooth, dark green and shining above, pale or glaucous beneath and somewhat pubescent when young; outline lanceolate, glandular-serrate; apex long-acuminate; tapering to an acute or obtuse base; leafstalk short, glandular at the top; stipules half-cordate when present, soon falling.

=Inflorescence.=--April to May. Catkins appearing with the leaves, spreading, stalked,--sterile 1-2 inches long; stamens 2-4, usually 2; filaments distinct, pubescent below; ovary abortive: fertile catkins slender; stigma nearly sessile; capsule long-conical, smooth, short-stalked.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows best near streams, but adapts itself readily to all rich, damp soils. A handsome ornamental tree when planted where its roots can find water, and its branches space for free development. Readily propagated from slips.

SALIX ALBA, L.

WHITE WILLOW.

=Habitat and Range.=--Low, moist grounds; along streams. Probably indigenous throughout Europe, northern Africa, and Asia as far south as northwestern India. Extensively introduced in America, and often spontaneous over large areas.

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.

New England,--sparingly throughout.

South to Delaware; extensively introduced in the western states.

=Habit.=--A large tree, 50-80 feet in height; trunk usually rather short and 2-7 feet in diameter; head large, not as broad-spreading as that of S. fragilis; branches numerous, mostly ascending.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk in old trees gray and coarsely ridged, in young trees smooth; twigs smooth, olive.

=Leaves.=--Leaves simple, alternate, 2-4 inches long, silky-hairy on both sides when young, when old still retaining more or less pubescence, especially on the paler under surface; outline narrowly lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, glandular-serrate, tapering to a long pointed apex and to an acute base; leafstalk short, usually without glands; stipules ovate-lanceolate, soon falling.

=Note.=--Var. vitellina, Koch., by far the most common form of this willow; mature leaves glabrous above; twigs yellow. Var. caerulea, Koch.; mature leaves bluish-green, glabrous above, glaucous beneath; twigs olive.

=Inflorescence.=--April to May. Catkins appearing with the leaves, slender, erect, stalked; scales linear; stamens 2; filaments distinct, hairy below the middle; stigma nearly sessile, deeply cleft; capsule glabrous, sessile or nearly so.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows best in moist localities; extensively cultivated to bind the soil along the banks of streams. Easily propagated from slips.

JUGLANDACEAE. WALNUT FAMILY.

=Juglans cinerea, L.=

BUTTERNUT. OILNUT. LEMON WALNUT.

=Habitat and Range.=--Roadsides, rich woods, river valleys, fertile, moist hillsides, high up on mountain slopes.

New Brunswick, throughout Quebec and eastern Ontario.

Maine,--common, often abundant; New Hampshire,--throughout the Connecticut valley, and along the Merrimac and its tributaries, to the base of the White mountains; Vermont,--frequent; Massachusetts,--common in the eastern and central portions, frequent westward; Rhode Island and Connecticut,--common.