123 



I 



much battered alpestrine form on Mt. Lafayette, alt. 4200 feet, 

 beside the bridle - 1 near Eagle Lake." 



J 



White Mountains and returned 



on 



the 29th. The first few days were spent on the southern shore 

 of Squam Lake, at Holderness, N. H., south of the whole range 

 of White and Franconia Mountains. Here, at an elevation of 

 about 500 feet above the sea, he found a little bush of S. bahamu 

 /era, that had been cut off near the ground and then sent up new 

 shoots. Others doubtless occur in the same neig^hborhood but 

 none could be found. In the Franconia Notch, 30 miles further 

 north '^ three good clusters were found in a grassy meadow near 

 the carriage road."' 



We come now to last summer, when the search for this willow, 

 which Mr. Faxon has carried on year after year with unabated 

 enthusiasm, was rewarded by the discovery of the plant in 



abundance. He' writes as follows : 



J 



J 887. I have been here a fortnight and have found the Salix 

 balsamifera quite common in and around the Larch swamps. I 

 came too late for the male flowers, as the altitude is not more 

 than 1,000 feet and the valley is quite warm in summer. With 

 just now the fertile capsules opening and coalescing into huge, 

 soft balls of whitest wool, almost hiding the beautiful red and 

 maroon leaves of the growing tips, it is certainly the handsomest 

 willow I ever saw." 



^. bahmnifera^ Barratt. A much and irregularly branched 

 shrub, 4 to 10 feet in height, sometimes growing in clumps of 

 thickly-set, straight, upright stems, I to 2 inches in diameter at 

 base, not much branched till near the top ; bark of old stems 

 rather smooth, dull gray; branches olive, recent twigs reddish 

 brown, or on the sunny side shining chestnut; leaves ovate or 

 ovate- lanceolate, 2 to 3 inches long, I to i>^ inches wide, broadly 

 rounded and usually subcordate at base, acute or acuminate, at 

 first very thin, subpellucid, and of a rich reddish color; at length 

 rigid, dark green above, paler or glaucous beneath and beautifully 

 reticulate-veined, glabrous on both sides or with a few scattered 

 silken hairs when just expanded; margin glandular-serrulate, 

 petioles long and slender, stipules noticeably absent throughout, 

 ^r on the most vigorous shoots minute and evanescent ; aments 

 uorne on slender leafy peduncles; the male densely flowered, 



