=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. South to Delaware, along the mountains to Georgia and Alabama; west to Minnesota, Kansas, and Arkansas. =Habit.=--Usually a medium-sized tree, 20-45 feet in height, with a disproportionately large trunk, 1-4 feet in diameter; often attaining under favorable conditions much greater dimensions. It ramifies at a few feet from the ground and throws out long, rather stout, and nearly horizontal branches, the lower slightly drooping, forming for the height of the tree a very wide-spreading head, with a stout and stiffish spray. At its best the butternut is a picturesque and even beautiful tree. =Bark.=--Bark of trunk dark gray, rough, narrow-ridged and wide-furrowed in old trees, in young trees smooth, dark gray; branchlets brown gray, with gray dots and prominent leaf-scars; season's shoots greenish-gray, faint-dotted, with a clammy pubescence. The bruised bark of the nut stains the skin yellow.