236 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



acute, callous-serrate, dull green, slightly shining, even and sub- 

 glabrous or very thinly hairy above, glaucous and sparingly hairy or 

 subglabrous beneath, and softly pubescent on both sides where they are 

 silky on the veins. Stipules small, ovate, half-cordate, caducous. Male 

 flowers unknown. Female catkins opening at the same time as the 

 leaf-buds, shortly stalked or subsessile, -with a few foliaceous bracts at 

 the base, rather dense, cylindrical. Catkin-scales strapshaped, obtuse, 

 thinly pilose. Capsule subulate-conical, whitish silky-tomentose, on 

 a stalk three or four times as long as the nectary ; style elongate, 

 commonly exceeding the stigmas ; stigmas short, ovate, generally 

 2-cleft. Branches of the year and buds finely downy, soon becommg 

 glabrous ; leaves sometimes hairy, blackish in drying, but only if 

 gathered young. 



In woods and thickets. Rather rare. Smith states, on the authority 

 of Mr. Crowe, that it is not uncommon in Norfolk. It occurs in the 

 Isle of Wight, by a little pool close to Newto^vn, on the right hand of 

 the road from Shalfleet between the Town Hall and Fretland's farm ; 

 perhaps also in a hedge by the side of a horse path from Alveston to 

 Nunworth Down (Dr. Bromfield) ; Bryanston, Dorset (Mr. I. C. 

 Mansel) ; Richmond, Yorkshire (Mr. J. Ward in Leefe^ Sal. Brit. No. 43). 

 Probably it occurs elsewhere, but it has been so much confounded with 

 forms of S. phylicifolia that I cannot give its correct distribution in 

 England, and I have no reliable record of it from Scotland. In Ireland, 

 where it is a doubtful native, it occurs near Carrigline in a moist bushy 

 place by the roadside between Castle Dawson and Bellaghy, co. Derry, 

 also on the shore of Lough Neagh, near Massarene Park, Antrim. 



England, Ireland. Shrub or tree. Late Spring or early Summer. 



A bush rarely above 6 feet high, but when left to itself sometimes 

 reaching 20 or 30 feet in height, with upright virgate maliogany 

 coloiu'ed branches and numerous nearly upright leaves. Leaves 

 from 2 to 4 mches long, widest a little beyond the middle, where 

 they are 1 to 2 inches across, when young resembling those of 

 S. Caprea, but with the hairs rather more silky, when full-grown, 

 however, they are much more like those of S. phylicifolia. Catkins 

 numerous, suberect, I to 1^ inch long, with the scales much shorter 

 than the ovaries, which are white. 



This is well distinguished from all the forms of S. Caprea, S. 

 cinerea, and S. aurita by the elongate style and later period of flower- 

 ing, the hairs are also more silky and less crisped, and the mature 

 leaves are more rigid, brighter green above, and more glaucous 

 beneath, and the capsule has a shorter stalk, and the catkm-scales are 

 shorter in proportion. 



