2^0 DIOECIA— DIANDRIA. Sallx. 



nearly sessile, small, elliptical. Bracteas few, linear-lanceolate, 

 acute, covered at the back with long silky hairs. Scales obovate, 

 dark brown upwards, reaching to the middle of the silky, ovate- 

 lanceolate, stalked germen, and clothed with long dense hairs, 

 not reaching to its top. Nect. ovate-oblong, bluntish. Style at 

 first but half the length of the linear, deeply cloven, stigmas; 

 but becoming afterwards about as long. Caps, silky, tapering, 

 on a hairy stalk, and tipped with the permanent style and stig- 

 mas. 

 This was given to Mr. ('rowe for the true Velvet Osier, and its 

 remarkable softness suggested the name of Salix mollissima; 

 wliich we afterwards discovered, as we thought, to have been 

 given to the same species by Ehihart. But his mollissima I 

 have lately ascertained to be totally distinct, in catkins as well 

 as leaves ; which Willdenow first perceiving, was pleased to give 

 our English plant the appellation here adopted. His holosericea 

 is, I believe, the Velvet Osier. Both that and the mollissima 

 are German, not British, natives. It is important for cultiva- 

 tors of Osiers to distinguish them carefully, for the Velvet Osier 

 is, for some kinds of work, greatly esteemed 5 whereas 6'. Smith- 

 iana, notwithstanding the account received by Mr. Crowe, see 

 Fl. Brit. 1070, proves of no utility. 



63. S. stipidaris. Auricled Osier. 



Leaves lanceolate, pointed, slightly wavy, obscurely cre- 

 nate ; soft and nearly naked above ; white and downy 

 beneath. Stipulas half-heartshaped, stalked, very large. 

 Nectary cylindrical. Germen ovate, nearly sessile, as 

 well as the hnear, undivided stigmas. 



S. stipularis. H.Br. 1069. En^l Bot.v.\7. t.\2\A, ReessCycL 

 n. 136. Hook. Scot. 286. WilliL Sp. PL v. 4. 708. 



In osier-holts, hedges and woods. 



Near Bury St. Edmund's. Mr. Crowe. Common in hedges and 

 woods in Scotland 3 Mr. David Don. Hooker. 



Shrub. March. 



TidgsupYight, tall, soft and downy, of a pale reddish brown, brittle, 

 and of little or no use as an Osier. Leaves almost upright, nu- 

 merous, about a span long, sharp-pointed, unequally and slightly 

 crenate ; green, even and soft, though hardly downy, above ; finely 

 downy, and whitish, beneath, with a nearly smooth, reddish, or 

 pale, midrib, and remarkably downy, as it were fringed, veins. 

 Footstalks stout, half or three quarters of an inch long. Stipulaspe- 

 culiar, being more or less stalked, half-heartshaped, taper-pointed, 

 erect, longer than the footstalks, toothed, or lobed, on the outer 

 ^k\e at the base, downy at the back. Catkins much earlier than 

 the foliage, numerous^' almost sessile, erect, with a few lanceo- 

 late, a<.ute, silky bracteas; the barren ones rather above an inch 



