232 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



long stalks, the style often scarcely distinguishable, at least until after 

 flowering. 



It differs from S. acuminata, Sm. in the leaves being more narrowed 

 towards the base, less acuminate, the female catkins shorter, the cap- 

 sule with a much longer stalk, and the styh^s much shorter. 



The varieties run so into each other, that it is often impossible to 

 say to which of the three a form ought to be referred. 



Common Sallow. 



French, Saule cendre. German, Granc Weide. 



This tree is a type of the sallows which avc known hy their downy branches and 

 rusty glittering hue. The sallow makes good copse wood, growing rapidly, and 

 yielding a supj^ly of long branches adapted for poles and hoops, and a variety of other 

 purposes. It makes one of the best kinds of charcoal for gunpowder. None of the 

 species do well in dry land. They require an abundant supply of moisture. The 

 bark may be used for tanning, and is aj^plied medicinally sometimes. Gerard tells us 

 that Dioscorides writeth, " Being burnt to ashes and steeped in vinegar, it takes away 

 cornes and other like risings in the feet and toes." " Divers," saith Galen, " doe slit 

 the bai'k while the withy is in flowriug, and gather a certain juyce with which they use 

 to take away things that hinder the sight, and this is when they are constrained to 

 use a cleansing medicine of thin and subtile parts." Both Gerard and Culpepper tell 

 us that " 'Tis a fine cool tree, the boughs of which are very convenient to be placed in 

 the chamber of one sick of a feaver, which thing is a wonderfull refreshing to the sicke 

 patient." 



SPECIES XVII.—SALIX AURITA. Linn. 



Plate MCCCXXX. 



Beich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XI. Tab. DLXXV. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 848. 



Wimm. Sal. Europ. p. 51. Anders. Mon. Sal. p. G9. Sm. Engl. Bot. cd. i. No. 4087, 



and Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 216. Hooh. Brit. Fl. ed. iv. p. 305. IIoolc & Am. 



Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 408. Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. vi. p. 311. 



Leaves obovate or subrotund- or oblong- obo vat e, often wedgeshaped 

 at the base, broadest beyond the middle, obtuse. and apiculate or shortly 

 cuspidate, undulated and faintly serrate at the margins, which are 

 narrowly reflexed but never revolute, rugose (from the veins being 

 deeply impressed) and dull opaque green and usually pubescent above, 

 more or less glaucous and pubescent with white or reddish-brown hairs 

 beneath. Stipules shortly stalked or subsessile, half-reniform. Catkins 

 opening rather before the leaf-buds, subsessile, with a few nonfoliaceous 

 bracts at the base ; the male catkins oblong, the female shortly cylin- 

 drical. Catkin-scales strapshaped, sparingly pilose. Stamens 2 ; fila- 

 ments free, nearly glabrous at the base. Capsule subulate-conical, 

 whitish'-tomentose, on a stalk three to five times as long as the nectar}' ; 



