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. SALIX NIGRA Marshall. Black Willow. (× 1/2.)]