Ball — Notes on Some Western Willoios. 85 



amining a. female specimen (Redfiekl herb. 7343, Mo. Bot. 

 Gard.) collected by "John Muir, 1875, alpine near Yose- 

 mite,' Calif.," the possibility becomes, to me, a strong proba- 

 bility. It has been labeled *' ai-tica? 'R. Br.," in pencil by 

 Eedfield, but it is very distinct from that species. In habit 

 and leaf characters (except tawny hairs), in *' aments lateral, 

 densely flowered, sessile or on very short but distinct pedun- 

 cles with two oblong leaf-like bracts at base; scales dark col- 

 ored; capsules ovate-conical, silky-tomentose, sessile ; styles 

 medium-sized, not produced; stigmas mostly entire, spread- 

 ing" it coincides with S. Monica. The aments, however, 

 are not "diminutive roundish" but oblong, \ in. long; 

 scales not " roundish-ovate, rather obtuse, and slightly 

 villous " but ovate-lanceolate, acute, and villous with 

 long tawny hairs; the capsules not "minute, a line long" 

 but 1^-2^ lines long. In these characters it conicides with 

 S. chlorophylla, as it also does in the leaves (all immature) 

 thinly villous with tawny hairs. The descriptive quotations 

 are from the description of S. Monica. 



These points should be noted: (1), S. Monica as described 

 differs from S. chlorophylla in the smaller, non-glaucous 

 leaves, shorter aments, capsules, and styles, and the very dif- 

 ferent scales of the two sexes. (2), These differences, except 

 in the scales, would be the natural accompaniment of " poor 

 stunted specimens" such as Bebb's types confessedly were. 

 (3), The Muir specimen possesses the characters common to 

 both species and also the small, non-glaucous leaves (imma- 

 ture) and short styles of S. Monica, with the larger aments 

 and capsules and the scales of S, chlorophylla. (4), The 

 normal scales of S. chloi^ophylla are intermediate in shape 

 between the male and female scales of S. Monica. The stam- 

 inate aments of S. Monica, with their linear scales, may be 

 found to belong to some other species; several are only 

 imperfectly known. 



S. DESERTORUM Richardson. 



S. desertorum Richards., Jour. Franklin, Append. 371. 1823. — Hooker, 

 Fl. Bor,-Am. 2 : 161. 1840. — Andersson in DC. Prod. 16' : 281. 1868. — Bebb 

 in Bot. Wheeler Survey 6:241. 1878. —Bebb in Coulter, Man. Rocky Mt. 

 Bot. 338. 1885. — Britton & Brown, Illus. FI. 1:500. /. 2iS2. 1896. 



An examination of a large number of specimens of S. deser- 



