=1.= =Salix nìgra= Marshall. Willow. Black Willow. Plate 10. Shrub or tree 5-20 m. (17-65 feet) high, dark green in mass color; bark of trunk thick, rough, flaky, dark brown to nearly black; twigs brittle at base, the younger pubescent and green, becoming glabrous and darker with age; buds ovate, small, 2-3 mm. (1/8 inch) long; petioles 3-6 or 8 mm. (1/8-3/8 inch) long; stipules small, ovate to roundish; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, acute or rounded at base, long-acuminate at the apex, 6-11 cm. (2-1/4-4-1/4 inches) long, 7-12 mm. (1/4-1/2 inch) wide, often falcate (scythe-shaped), the so-called variety =falcata=, finely serrate, green on both sides, shining above, paler and dull beneath, glabrous or sometimes pubescent beneath on midrib and larger veins; flowers appearing with the leaves in late April in the southern part of the State and well into May in the northern part; catkins slender, 2-5 or 6 cm. (4/5-2 or 2-1/2 inches) long, the staminate bright yellow; capsules 3-5 mm. (1/8 inch) long, ovoid or ovoid-lanceolate, on pedicels 1-2 mm. (1/16 inch) long. =Distribution.=--New Brunswick and New England, westward to the eastern part of the Great Plains area from North Dakota to Texas, and, in some forms, westward across that State and into Mexico. It is interesting that this species, the first willow published in America, in the first book on American Botany ever published in this country, should be abundantly and widely distributed in the United States. Specimens have been seen from the following counties in Indiana:--Allen (Deam); Bartholomew (Deam); Clark (Deam); Crawford (Deam); Dearborn (Deam); Dubois (Deam); Decatur (Deam); Floyd (Deam); Fulton (Deam); Harrison (Deam); Hendricks (Deam); Henry (Deam); Jackson (Deam); Jay (Deam); Jennings (Deam); Knox (Deam); Kosciusko (Deam); Lagrange (Deam); Marion (Mrs. Chas. C. Deam); Marshall (Deam); Miami (Deam); Morgan (Deam); Noble (Deam); Ohio (Deam); Parke (Deam); Perry (Deam); Porter (Deam); Posey (Deam); Pulaski (Deam); Ripley (Deam); Steuben (Deam); Sullivan (Deam); Tippecanoe (Deam); Vermillion (Deam); Wabash (Deam); Warrick (Deam); White (Deam). =Economic Uses.=--The black willow is used very extensively along the lower reaches of the Mississippi River in making mattresses which protect the levees from washing. In 1912, it was estimated that 150,000 cords were used annually.