Distribution. Low moist alluvial banks of streams and lakes; southern New Brunswick through southern Quebec and Ontario to the region north of Lake Superior, southward to northern and western North Carolina, through the Piedmont region of South Carolina and Georgia to eastern and central Alabama, and westward to southeastern North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, the valley of Wichita River, Oklahoma, and central and western Texas to Valverde County. In southern Arkansas, in Louisiana and in eastern Texas _Salix nigra_ is often replaced by var. _altissima_ Sarg., differing from the type in the more pubescent young branchlets, leaves and petioles, in the more acute base of the leaves and longer petioles, and in its later flowering. A tree sometimes 120 feet high and the tallest of American Willows. Salix nigra var. Lindheimeri Schn. _Salix Wrightii_ Sarg., not Anders. [Illustration: Fig. 134] Leaves lanceolate, often slightly falcate, long-pointed and acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, finely glandular-serrate, glabrous, light green on the upper surface, paler below, 4′—5′ long, ⅓′—½′ wide; petioles pubescent early in the season, becoming glabrous, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers: aments slender, densely villose, 2′—3′ long; scales ovate, acute or rarely rounded at apex, covered with matted white hairs, more abundant on the inner surface; stamens 4 or 5; filaments villose below the middle; ovary ovoid, gradually narrowed to the apex, the 2-lobed stigmas nearly sessile. Fruit ovoid-conic; pedicels about ¼′ long. A tree, 50°—70° high with a trunk often 3° in diameter, large erect spreading branches forming an open irregular head, and slender branchlets light green and slightly pubescent when they first appear, becoming light orange or yellow-brown and lustrous. Bark thick, pale yellow-brown, deeply furrowed, the surface sometimes separating into long plate-like scales. Distribution. River banks, central and western Texas from Grayson and Dallas Counties and the lower valley of the Brazos River to the valleys of the San Antonio and upper Guadalupe Rivers; in Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. 2. Salix Gooddingii Ball. _Salix vallicola_ Britt. [Illustration: Fig. 135]