CATKIN-BEARING TRIBE 159 



Flora " remark, that it is not the arhuscula of Continental botanists. It is 

 nearly allied to the last species, differing chiefly in the more shaggy scales 

 and entire stigmas. It has short lax catkins in April. 



15. Don's Willow, or Rusty-branched "Willow {S. donidna). — 

 Branches at first j)rocumbent, afterwards erect ; leaves inversely egg-shaped- 

 lanceolate, serrated ; stipules linear ; catkins erect, cylindrical, dense ; stigmas 

 short ; anthers yellow. This shrub, which is about six feet high, much 

 resembles S. purpurea, differing from it chiefly in its stalked seeds, and in 

 the silkiness of the under surface of its leaves. Its stem sends out leafy 

 branches, Avhich, when very young, arc slightly downy, becoming afterwards 

 of a rusty Irown colour. The leaves are an inch and a half long, flat, and 

 nearly erect, much veined, green on the upper surface, but of a dull livid 

 colour, and slightly downy or silky beneath, with a prominent reddish midrib. 

 The catkins are on short lateral stalks, and appear in May. Its record as a 

 British plant rests on the authority of George Don, who reported it from 

 Forfarshire. 



16. Dwarf Silky Willow, or Brown W^illow {S. fusca). — Leaves 

 elliptical or elliptic-lanceolate, broadest about the middle, acute, entire, or 

 with minute glandular serratures ; somewhat downy, glaucous, mostly very 

 silky beneath • ovaries upon a long stalk ; stigmas 2-cleft. A large number 

 of plants formerly considered distinct have, by the authors of the "British 

 Flora " and Mr. Borrer, l>een regarded as varieties of this species. They 

 dift'er in the erect or trailing nature of the stem and branches, and in the 

 form and downiness of the leaves, and were described as S. ripens, S. pvstrdta, 

 S. foetida, S. ascindens, S. parvifdlia, S. inrAtbdcea, and *S^. argSntea. The Dwarf 

 Silk}^ Willow is usually a beautiful little shrub, with rather long straight 

 branches, but varying very much according to situation. It is in one of its 

 forms, the S. argentea, abundant on some commons, trailing its leafy branches, 

 which are grey with silkiness, or in some cases holding itself up by means of 

 neighbouring furze or other bushes : its leaf is generally twisted at the 

 point, and beautifully silvery and shining. The varieties are all plants of 

 heaths and moors, or sandy situations. 



17. Ambiguous Willow (»S'. ambigua). — Leaves oval, inversely egg- 

 shaped or lanceolate, downy, slightly toothed, with the point turning back- 

 wards; somewhat rugged above, glaucous, with prominent veins beneath; 

 catkins erect ; fruit stalked, densely silky ; style very short ; stigmas cloven. 

 In one form the leaves are oval, or inversely egg-shaped, and moderately 

 hairy ; in a second, they are iuA^ersely egg-shaped, and very silky on both 

 sides ; and in another, the *S^. spaihulata of Willdenow, they are inversely 

 egg-shaped and lanceolate, or oblong and somewhat hairy or silk3^ The 

 Ambiguous Willow is a small straggling shrub, about three or four feet high, 

 its branches sometimes quite prostrate, at others rising a foot or two above 

 the surface of the ground. Its young twigs are downy, its leaves thin, and 

 the veins sunken above and prominent beneath, rendering the green part 

 somewhat wrinkled. It varies much in the silkiness and downiness of its 

 leaves, and has stalked upright cylindrical catkins. It is indigenous on 

 gravelly heaths in Sussex, Essex, and Suftblk, and has been seen also in 

 Perthshire, Aberdeen, Inverness, Angus, Caithness, Orkney, and the Hebrides. 



