262 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



to the scales of the ament ; and the scales are manifestly only 

 modified leaves. This subject I have treated at length in my 

 manuscript essay on the willows, and can here only briefly 

 advert to these interesting facts." — Barratt. 



Dr. Barratt has long and attentively studied these two wil- 

 lows, and I insert his descriptions at length. Both of the plants 

 are found abundantly at Brookline and elsewhere, and answer 

 to the descriptions which Dr. Barratt has given. I have, how- 

 ever, always considered these two and the two preceding, as 

 varieties of one willow, with some striking differences, certainly, 

 but not greater than are found in what are universally admitted 

 to be varieties of the apple, the pear, and the plumb trees. 



Group Third. The Gra.yish Willows. Grisecs. Borrer. 



Aments cylindrical, rather short, preceding the leaves, with 

 two or three minute leaves at base ; stamens two, opening usually 

 first from the middle of the ament. Ovaries sessile or stalked, 

 grayish silky. Leaves lanceolate, serrate, grayish silky beneath, 

 turning black on drying. Shrubs with branches brittle at base, 

 and an intensely bitter bark. — Barratt. 



Sp. 8 The Brittle Gray Willow. & grisea. Willdenow. 



Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, serrulate, smooth, but downy on the mid-rib 

 above ; silken or naked beneath ; stipules linear, deflexed, deciduous ; aments 

 preceding the leaves ; scales oblong, hairy, black at the apex; ovaries oblong 

 or slightly tapering, on a short stalk, silky ; stigmas sessile, obtuse. — Pursh, 

 II, 616. Wittd., Sp. pi., IV, 699. 



A shrub usually five or six feet high, sometimes a small tree 

 twelve or fifteen feet high, growing in or near places wet or 

 inundated the greater part of the year, usually much branched 

 and abundantly set with leaves. The female aments are very 

 numerous, coming out just before the leaves, half an inch long, 

 erect, on a short footstalk, which is invested with two or three 

 linear leaves, of nearly the same length as the aments. Ovaries 

 gradually tapering or ovoid, on a very short stalk, crowded. 

 Smaller branches reddish green, or greenish, at last olive, tough, 

 but very brittle near the base. Older ones ashy gray. Stem on 



