RELATIONS OF SAL IX MISSOURIENSIS, 

 BEBB, TO S. CORD AT A, MUHL. 



BY N. M. GLATFELTER, M. D. 



The great variability of that species of Salix formerly in- 

 cluded under the name of cordata has long been known. In- 

 deed, so impressed am I with the extent of this variation, I 

 have come to feel that no simple, straight statement regard- 

 ing any one of its characters, can represent a truth: it is for 

 this reason that the usual descriptions render but a part of a 

 truth, and, by too much inclusion, become virtually errors. 

 Looking at the different forms of leaves and stipules as repre- 

 sented on the plates accompanying this paper, one will be 

 struck with the apparent indifference of the plant as to what 

 kind of leaf or stipule it produced. Certain of its forms 

 have, long ago, been named as varieties. The matter of 

 erecting one of these forms into a species under the name of 

 Missouriensis, judging from the language of its projector, 

 Mr. M. S. Bebb (see Garden and Forest, p. 373), seems, as 

 yet, a somewhat open one. Considering it important to know 

 whether we really have here a new species, and what its spe- 

 cific limits might be, I have collected during the season just 

 past, nearly two hundred specimens. The range of the ter- 

 ritory of my collections is limited westward to Forest Park, 

 Ferguson and Creve Coeur lake, northward to the Missouri 

 river, eastward to the Illinois bluffs and Cahokia. 



For convenience of handling my subject-matter, I shall 

 assume, from the first, but one species under the name S,. 

 Cordata, the reasons for which assumption will be apparent 

 later on. 



North of the city along most of the ravines it grows abun- 

 dantly, extending almost to the very heads of the ravines or 

 gullies, most of which, in dry seasons, become perfectly dry, 

 as is the case at the present writing. These ravines and small 

 creek valleys were all covered over with that earliest alluvium 



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