DIOECIA— DIANDRIA. Sallx. 185 



S. fragilis. Linn. Sp. PL 1443. Fl. Lapp. n. 349. /. 8./. b. mild. 



V. 4. 669. Fl. Br. 10.51. Engl. Lot. v. 26. t. 1807. Hook. Scot. 



279. Dicks. H. Sice. fasc.lG.^. Ehrh. PL OJ'. 3\9. ^rb. 88. 

 S. n. 1638. Hall. HisL v. 2. 305 ? 

 S. folio longo latoque splendente^ fragilis. Rail Cant. 143. 



Syn. 448. 



In low marshy grounds, about the banks of rivers. 



Tree. Jpril, May. 



A tall, bushy-headed tree, whose branches are set on obliquely, 

 somewhat crossing each other, not continued in a straight line, 

 by which it may readily be distinguished in winter. They are 

 round, very smooth, with a brown, polished hark, and so brittle 

 at the base in spring, that with the slightest blow they start 

 from the trunk. Such indeed is more or less the case with S. 

 decipiens, and several other Willows, both native and exotic ; 

 and having been observed in the preceding as well as following 

 species, these have both been referred to S. fragilis, however 

 distinct in characters and important qualities. Leaves 4 or 5 

 inches long, taper-pointed, lanceolate, with blunt, often unequal, 

 but not coarse, serratures, very smooth, except in the earliest 

 state, when they are rather silky ; the upper surface is of a dark 

 shining green ; under paler; they are broadest toward the base, 

 and when full-grown become rounded at that part, approaching 

 to an ovate shape, as expressed in FL Lapp. t. 8./. b, and agree- 

 ing with the original Linnaean specimen, though the plant is 

 called "a lofty shrub" in that work, not acquiring, perhaps, in 

 Lapland the height usual with us. Footstalks perfectly smooth, 

 as well as the midrib, more or less glandular about the top, but 

 scarcely ever producing small accessory leaflets. Stipulas half- 

 heartshaped, strongly toothed, various in size. Catkins on 

 short branches, like the foregoing, but the floral leaves are less 

 abrupt, and straighter ; barren ones obtuse, 2i inches long, 

 dense, with rounded, concave, hairy scales, and from 2 to 5 sta- 

 mens to each j^oref, accompanied not unfrequently with an im- 

 perfect pistil, as well as a rounded nectary. Scales of the fer- 

 tile florets rather longer. Germen nearly sessile, smooth, ovate, 

 obtuse, rather compressed, with a nectary like that of the barren 

 florets at its base, on the contrary side to the scale. Style very 

 short, with deeply divided spreading stigmas. Neither the sta- 

 mens nor the stigmas project much beyond their respective scales. 

 The common receptacle of all the catkins is woolly. 

 The wood is of little value. Whatever economical or medical uses 

 have been attributed to this Willow belong to the following, 

 which has very generally been mistaken for it, in many parts of 

 England. I have formerly, but erroneously, suspected that 

 Ehrhart's specimens, published as fragilis, might rather be our 

 Russelliamt. They want full-grown leaves, and barren catkins, 

 but as far as can be determined, they answer to the tn\c fragilis ; 



