256 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



spicuously grayish and sage-like in its appearance, and from 

 one to three feet high ; the larger, three or four feet high, with 

 larger, broader, and longer leaves of a deeper green. 



The sage willow is a slender, hoary plant, or a spreading 

 tufted bush, one or two feet high, growing in the openings and 

 on the borders of dry, sandy woods. Its root is large and strong, 

 often an inch or two in diameter, with reddish wood and thick 

 bark, extending some distance, often two or three feet, at a few 

 inches beneath the surface. From this rise several stems of a 

 yellowish green, or, later, grayish brown, somewhat downy, 

 and clouded often with dark brown. The central stem, long 

 and very slender, bears the fructification. After the decay of 

 which, it is bare, or with a few leaves at the extremity. From 

 the lower part of it, and from the other stems, shoot the leaf- 

 bearing branches. On these the leaves are somewhat crowded, 

 narrow-obovate, spatulate, one or two inches long, broadest 

 towards the upper end, and tapering gradually to a very short 

 petiole, acute at the extremity, reflexed and waved at the mar- 

 gin, downy on the mid-rib and veins, and corrugate, sage-like 

 above, whitish tomentose beneath. It not unfrequently bears 

 small leafy cones. 



In one sub- variety, the leaves are crowded and very short, not 

 half an inch long, and the whole upper part of the plant is 

 covered with a dense, whitish gray tomentum. 



Var. 2. — Very much like this, but larger in all respects, is 

 the variety which has been called Muhlenberg's willow. 



The main stem is smooth and of a bright green below, cloud- 

 ed and somewhat downy above. The recent branches greenish 

 yellow, downy, and spreading. Leaves from one and a half to 

 three inches long, oblong lanceolate, half an inch wide, pointed 

 at the extremity, rounded or rather acute at base, entire, waved, 

 revolute at the margin, corrugate with depressed veins, and sage- 

 like, with the mid-rib downy above, glaucous, with the mid-rib 

 and veins prominent beneath, but without down on the mature 

 leaves. The young leaves are downy on both surfaces, — revolute 

 in aestivation ; stipules small, ear-shaped, pointed above, with 

 one or two teeth on each side, recurved at the margin, some- 

 times appendaged at base. 



