2]G ■ ENGLISH BOTAXY. 



Var. 7, amyfjdalina. 

 Plate MCCCXV. 



S. amygdalina, Linn. 8m. Eng. Bot. ed. i. No. 1936, and Engl. Fl, Vol. IV. p. 169. 

 Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 357. 



Young twigs deeply furrowed. Leaves short, ovate-lanceolate, 

 rounded at the base. Stipules larger than in Var. a. Leaves 

 glaucous beneath. 



By the sides of streams and in wet woods and osier grounds. 

 Common. Generally distributed in England. Rather rare in Scot- 

 land, and absent from the north. Not unfrequent in Ireland, but 

 often planted. Mr. Carroll considers it indigenous in Cork. 



England, Scotland, L'eland. Tree or shrub. Late Spring, Early 

 Summer, sometimes again in Autumn. 



Usually a small tree or shrub, rarely, even when left to itself, 

 attaming a height of 20 to 30 feet, and var. 3 rarely more than 12 

 feet. Bark on the trunk splitting off in slieets as in the plane-tree. 

 Young branches brownish, breaking off readily at their origin. Leaves 

 variable in shape and size, but usually 2 to 4 inches long when full 

 grown, on short petioles with a few glands at the apex. Stipules 

 variable in size, generally present, entire or serrate, often large and 

 foliaceous on the later "shoots. Male catkins 1^ to 3 inches long, -svith 

 the scales pale yellow, broader towards the apex than in the female 

 catkins, generally hairy towai'ds the base. Stamens surrounded by a 

 double nectary. Female catkins more lax than the male, with nar- 

 rower and more parallel-sided scales. Nectary single. Ovary in fruit 

 ^ inch long, reddish. Catkin-scales subpersistent, much shorter than 

 the capsules. 



The varieties appear to pass insensibly into each other. 



This willow can be confounded only with S. undulata, which has 

 leaves of the same texture, but in S. triandra they are shorter, the 

 stipules are less acute, and the catkin-scales are glabrous on the out- 

 side, at least towards the apex, and are destitute of the loiig, white, 

 woolly hairs, which are so abundant inside the scales of S. undulata. 

 S. triandra has also the style scarcely at all developed, and the stigmas 

 much shorter than in S. undulata. 



S. contorta, Crowe^ which is cultivated in Sussex under the name 

 of French willow, appears not to be wild in Britain, nnd is considered 

 by Mr. Borrer as most nearly identical with var. Hoffmanniana, but 

 other writers refer it to var. a. Hooker and Arnott make it a 

 distinct variety, distinguished by furrowed young twigs, linear-lance- 

 olate leaves green on both sides, and acuminate capsule. 



Almond-leaved Willow. 



French, Saule a trois etmnwes. German, MandelJiliUtrige Welde. 



