( 



BULLETIN 



I 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



Vol. XV.] New York, May 2, 1888. [No. 5- 



White Mountain Willows.— I. 



By M. S. Bebb. 



Plate LXXXI. 



It has been my good fortune for seven consecutive summers 

 to receive from Mr. Edwin Faxon, notes and critical observations 



F 



on the White Mountain Willows, accompanied by specimens 

 which for completeness have never been- equalled except by 

 those of Mr. Oakes. No other botanist has given these plants 

 so much study afield, no one has ever before, by persistent ex- 

 ploration, continued year after year, become so familiar with 

 their growth and development under different conditions and the 

 extent of their distribution throughout the limited area which 

 they occupy. Having obtained my friend's permission to make 

 use of these notes, I trust the readers of the BULLETIN will com- 

 mend my judgment in allowing them to retain all that interest- 

 ing fullness of detail which they received originally in the un- 

 reserve of private correspondence. 



If while editing them I am able at the same time to contri- 

 bute somewhat to a better understanding of the species to which 

 they relate, it will readily be seen how far I am still indebted to 

 Mr. Faxon for the advantage derived from his satisfactory and 

 instructive collections. 



Salix balsamifera, Barratt 



While looking over the Willows in the herbarium of the Phil- 

 adelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, in the spring of 1879, I 

 came most unexpectedly up^i^-'a specimen of this species which 

 bad been collected in the White Mountains more than half a 

 century ago ! The whole mount was curious and antiquated. The 

 sheet of hand-made paper was stained and yellow with age. The 

 specimen, a mere fragment of leaves only, was held securely in 

 place by a sinde thrust of one of the round-headed, hand made 



