1909]  Fernmald,— Salix pedicellaris and its Variations 159 
loides being numerous and divergent. The leaves of the American 
shrub, varying from obovate-oblong to linear-oblanceolate (broadest 
above the middle), tapering to an acutish base, and usually glabrous 
from the first, are in maturity 3-8 em. long; those of true S. myrtil- 
loides of Europe, varying from round-ovate to ovate-oblong or oblong- 
lanceolate (broadest near the base), rounded or subcordate at base, 
and silky beneath when young, are in maturity only 1.5-3.5 cm. long. 
The American plant has larger aments and larger capsules, which are 
on pedicels 2-4 mm. long; the smaller capsules of the European plant 
being borne on pedicels 1-2 mm. long. S. myrtilloides is a shrub of 
arctic-alpine and high-northern distribution; * but the American 5. 
pedicellaris is unknown from our colder regions, reaching its north- 
eastern limit in the St. Lawrence valley and having its great develop- 
ment in the boggy meadows of the northern United States and adjacent 
Canada. In its geographic range S. pedicellaris is thus to be classed 
with Andromeda glaucophylla? which replaces in our bogs of temperate 
North America the hyperboreal А. polifolia. 
This American species, Salix pedicellaris, has three pronounced 
variations. The commonest, and in some ways the most attractive, 
is the shrub with the obovate-oblong blunt or acutish leaves very 
glaucous beneath, those of the vegetative shoots becoming 1-2.5 сш. 
broad. This, the shrub called by Bebb in the sixth edition of Gray's 
Manual S. myrtilloides, has the capsules rather plump and bluntish, 
and it is widely distributed in sphagnous bogs or wet meadows from 
eastern Quebec to British Columbia, south to New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, Illinois, and Iowa. 
Another variation, similar in foliage and in capsules to the com- 
monest tendency of the species, differs rather strikingly in having the 
leaves deep green upon both surfaces, only the very youngest, if any of 
them, glaucescent. This green-leaved shrub is apparently not com- 
mon, the specimens before the writer coming from a few scattered 
stations — in Quebec, Vermont, New York, British Columbia, and 
Washington. ё 
1 Saliz myrtilloides of northern Europe has been reported as occurring in northwestern 
arctic America, although Andersson qualifies his report by saying “sed ibi saepe cum 
aliis speciebus valde confusa” (Anderss. in DC. Prodr. xvi. pt. 2, 229). The writer has 
seen no American material which satisfactorily matches the European, but 5. fuscescens 
Anderss. of Alaska and of Mt. Albert, Quebec, strongly resembles it. S. fuscescens, 
however, has the leaves broadest above the middle, much as in S. pedicellaris, and the 
large capsules are on very short pedicels (shorter than the scales). 
2 See RHODORA, V. 67-71 (1903). 
