222 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



A shrub in habit, having the appearance of a willow 

 (c/. the Osier) the plant is thorny, with slender and 

 somewhat drooping branches, or short and spiny. 

 It is covered with a scaly scurf, close and silvery on 

 the underside of the leaves, with none above. The 

 young shoots and flowers have a rusty-looking scurf. 

 The shoots in the axils sometimes end in spines. 

 The leaves lengthen after flowering. They are linear 

 to lance-shaped, alternate, entire, inversely ovate, 

 silvery below, dull green above, and the flowers 

 appear with them on the old wood. 



The male flowers are small, in small catkin-like 

 clusters, the females being crowded, solitary in each 

 axil. The perianth is narrowed above. The lobes 

 of the perianth are oblong. The style projects some- 

 what. The anthers are yellow with short anther- 

 stalks. The fruit, a berry, is round or oblong, orange 

 yellow. 



Sea Buckthorn is i to 8 ft. in height. The flowers 

 open in May and June, and the plant is a perennial 

 shrub. 



The flowers are pollinated by the wind, the plant 

 being dioecious. In the male flowers bracteoles form 

 a hood bending above the stamens in wet weather, 

 and separate when it is dry. 



The fruit is dispersed by birds, and caterpillars with 

 orange patches like the fruits feed on the leaves. 



The names of the plant are Sea Buckthorn, Sallow 

 Thorn, Willow-Thorn, Wir, Wivule or Wyrvivle. 



HiPPOPHiE RHAMNOIDES. — In Fig. 64 note the osier- 



