4 Rhodora [January 



to distinguish from the eastern S. lucida the extreme western S. lasi- 

 andra. Accordingly, in his recent account of the Salisbury excur- 

 sion Mr. Bissell has suggested ^ the possibility that further observa- 

 tion may show the presence of S. lasiandra in eastern America. 



In attempting to settle this problem Mr. Bissell has brought to the 

 writer excellent fruited specimens of the Salisbury willow, which now 

 proves to be quite the same as Mr. Hoffmann's Stockbridge shrub ; 

 while an examination of the Gray Herbarium shows the plant to 

 extend southwestward to the mountains of northern New Jersey, and 

 to reappear on Lakes Superior and Michigan ; and some fragments 

 from the Bebb Herbarium, generously furnished by Dr. C. F. Mills- 

 paugh of the Field Columbian Museum, show it to be also in western 

 New York, northern Ohio and northern Minnesota. The suite of 

 specimens now before him have encouraged the writer to make a 

 detailed comparison of the shrub with the three species to which it 

 has been variously referred, Salix aviygdaloides, S. lucida and S. 

 lasiandra, and from them all it proves to be abundantly distinct. 



Aside from its firm thick elliptic-lanceolate finely crenulate-serrate 

 leaves which in maturity are pale or wJiitened beneath and on gland- 

 tipped petioles, the shrub is characterized in early summer by short- 

 oblong dense staminate aments (i to 1.5 cm. long, i to 1.2 cm. 

 thick), the short peduncle, rachis, and short obovate pale straw 

 colored entire scales, softly pubescent with white hairs ; the pistil- 

 late aments rather loosely flowered, in anthesis 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, 

 with white-pilose oblong entire bluntish scales. But the most strik- 

 ing condition of the plant is in late September and October when 

 the fruit is mature. Then, when the firm discolorous leaves are 

 about to fall, the matured pistillate aments are 2 to 3.5 cm. long, 2 

 to 2.5 cm, thick. The spreading capsules are olive or bronze-tinged 

 (rarely pale), thick-walled, conic-subulate in outline, 7 to 12 mm. 

 long, and on thickish pedicels which are only twice as long as the 

 tongue-shaped gland. 



From all three species, Salix aftiygdaloides, S. lucida, and S. lasi- 

 andra, with which isolated specimens of this autumn-fruiting willow 

 have been sometimes associated, it is quickly separated by three 

 significant characters : its very late fruiting, the fruiting material at 

 hand having been collected at dates from September 8 to October g, 

 while the fruited specimens in the Gray Herbarium of S. amygda- 



, ' Rhodora, v. 34. 



