WHITE WILLOW: TEA-LEAVED WILLOW 253 



^ Buds and young shoots 

 whitish with silky dp- 

 pressed hairs ; twigs long 

 and withy. 



S. alba, L. White Willow (Fig. 133). Twigs usually 

 retaining the silky pubescence at the tips, rather polished 

 olive-brown, or passing to glabrous yellow and olive, 

 reddish grey or brown, to purple or nearly black, rather 

 slender and supple. Buds with parallel sides, flattened 

 and small, strongly appressed and straight, the tips not 

 curved outwards, pubescent-silky. 



The variety vitellina, with golden yellow twigs, has 

 been dealt with (p. 249). The Purple Osier is a variety 

 with deep olive-purple twigs. One form is known locally 

 as the Huntingdon Willow. 



There is a good deal of variation in the amount of 

 pubescence, and sometimes difficulty occurs with the 

 somewhat similar, but normally not silky, S. fragilis 

 (p. 249), the fragility of the twigs not being absolutely 

 distinctive in frosty weather. 



^ ^ Young twigs somewhat 

 pubescent, but soon gla- 

 brous and shining olive or 

 brown; buds yellow or 

 orange-greenish^ slightly 

 silky; twigs short and 

 much branched. 



8. Phylicifolia, L. Tea-leaved Willow. Buds green- 

 ish orange or yellow, obtuse, slightly silky pubescent, on 

 close-set projecting leaf-bases, giving a nodulose appear- 

 ance to the twiggy shoots; the latter olive-green to brown, 

 or maroon, at length glabrous and shining. Buds obtuse, 

 convex, appressed and often with re-curved tips : some- 

 times in pairs. 



