1912]  Fernald,— An Early Collection of Salix balsamifera 69 
AN EARLY COLLECTION OF SALIX BALSAMIFERA. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
On referring to the discussion of Salix balsamifera Barratt in Sar- 
gent’s Silva, the writer recently noticed a statement which, by frequent 
repetition, has come to be strongly associated with the history of our 
knowledge of this unique species. The statement referred to:— 
“Salix balsamifera was first collected by Mr. Henry Little in August, 
1823, on the bank of the Ammonoosuc River among the White Moun- 
tains of New Hampshire" !— originated with the late M. S. Bebb 
in 1879. At that time Bebb called attention? to Mr. Little's speci- 
men preserved in the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Philadelphia; but, although the type material of the species which 
is botanically of the greatest importance was gollected by Sir John 
Richardson from "Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchawan," ? Mr. 
Little's earlier and long-overlooked collection of S. balsamifera has 
received such unusual prominence in the past third of a century 
as "the oldest herbarium specimen extant” £ of the species that it is 
appropriate, for the sake of historical accuracy, to record a still earlier 
collection of this willow. And, just as the Little specimen of S. 
balsamifera lay in a public herbarium unrecognized and unrecorded 
for more than half a century, it is perhaps noteworthy that the earlier- 
discovered but heretofore unrecorded specimen was collected 120 
years ago and until 1903 lay apparently unnoticed (at least unde- 
termined) in the herbarium of the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle at 
Paris. 
In 1903 while examining the plants in the Michaux Herbarium the 
writer was interested to find this sheet of very characteristic foliage 
of Salix balsamifera bearing in Michaux’s hand the label: “dans les 
marais de Batiscan.” The species, presumably because represented 
1 Sargent, Silva, xiv. 64 (1902). 
2 Bebb, Bot. Gaz. iv. 190 (1879). 
* Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 149 (1839). 
+" Here we have, I doubt not, the oldest herbarium specimen extant of S. balsami- 
fera"— Bebb, Bull. Torr. Bot. Cl. xv. 122 (1888). “It was first discovered more 
than half a century ago among the White Mountains of New Hampshire''— J., 
Garden and Forest, i. 246 (1888). ‘‘ This fragmentary specimen he [Bebb] recognized 
as Salix balsamifera and realized that it was the earliest collection of the species.’’— 
Sargent, Garden and Forest, vi. 28 (1893). 
