CHAP. CIII. SALICA‘CEZ. SALIX. 1591 
Host Sal. Austr.: in Eng. Bot., the female, in fruit and flower; and bractea (scale) of the male. 
Both sexes were living, in 1836, in the Twickenham Botanic Garden. 
Engravings. Hayne Abbild., t.175.; Eng. Bot., t. 1907.; Sal. Wob., No. 62.; and Host Sal. 
ustr., 1. t.104.; our fig. 1349. ; and fig. 62.in p. 1615. 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves orbicular, serrated, reticulated with veins; very 
glabrous and shining on both sides. Ovary stalked, ovate-lanceolate, 
glabrous. (Smith Eng. Fi.) A native of Britain, on the Welsh and High 
land mountains; flowering there in June, but, in the 
willow garden at Woburn Abbey, before the expansion 
of the leaves. It is a native, also, of various parts of 
Europe; also, according to Pursh, of North America. 
In the Companion to the Botanical Magazine, it is 
stated that S. herbacea exceeds in the elevation of 
its habitat every other shrub in Britain (p. 89.); and 
that ‘ few hills of 800 or 900 yards in Britain are 
without S. herbacea, whilst S. reticulata is probably 
limited to the Scottish Highlands, and not very 
plentiful there.” (p. 222.) S. herbacea is the least 
of British willows, and, according to Sir J. E. Smith, the least of all 
shrubs. Dr. Clarke, in his Scandinavia, calls it a perfect tree in minia- 
ture; so small, that it may be taken up, and root, trunk, and branches 
spread out in a small pocket-book. According to Hooker (Br. F1., 
ed. 2.), it is not “so small as-is generally supposed, for its stems divide 
and creep below the surface of the earth, scarcely rising 1 in. above it.” In 
ed. 3., it is stated, on the authority of Dr. Graham, that, “in the Bo- 
tanic Garden of Edinburgh it has acquired a prostrate woody stem, 2 ft. to 
3 ft. long, and as thick as the little finger.” Under the head Varieties, 
we have noticed some plants which may belong to this species, and 
which have stems 2 ft. or 3 ft. high. The leaves of S. herbacea are em- 
ployed, in Iceland, in the tanning of leather. (Lindl. Nat. Syst. Bot.) S. 
herbacea is called by the Laplanders the ptarmigan leaf. (Wahlenberg, 
quoted in Eng. Fl.) In Switzerland, M. Alphonse De Candolle observes, 
“ some species of willow (S. retusa, herbacea, and reticulata) spread over 
the uneven surface of the soil; and, as their branches are often covered 
with the earth, which the heavy rains wash over them, they present the 
singular phenomenon of trees which are more or less subterranean. - The 
extremities of these branches form, sometimes, a kind of turf; and the 
astonished traveller finds himself, as we may say, walking on the top of a 
tree. The Salix herbacea is the species that most frequently presents this 
remarkable appearance, because it generally grows on steep slopes of loose 
soil, particularly among the fragments of schistus, that are easily penetrated 
by the melting snow and the rain.” (Gard. Mag., xii. p. 235.) There are 
plants at Henfield. 
? Varieties. “ A very, remarkable kind of willow, from Sutherland, which has 
all the characters of S. herbacea, except that it grows 2 ft. high, has been 
sent to me by Dr. Graham, and is now alive in my garden.” (Borrer in a 
letter.) An unusually large variety was found by Mr. Templeton on the 
top of Slieve-Nance, in the county of Antrim, Ireland, similar to some 
of the large varieties gathered by Mr. M‘Nab of Edinburgh on the moun- 
tains of Sutherland. Mr. Moore lately sent Mr. Mackay very luxuriant 
specimens from Dark Mountain, in the county of Derry, Ireland. (FV. 
Hibern., pt. 1. p. 253.) 
« 162. S.poua‘ris Wahlenb. The Polar Willow. 
eg ae Wabhlenb. Suec., p. 636. ; Fl. Lapp., p. 261. ; Koch Comm., p. 64. ; Forbes in Sal. 
Wob., No. 63. 
The Sexes. The female is described and figured in Sa?. Wob. 
Engravi : Wahl. Fl. Lapp., t. 13. f. 1. ; Sal. Wob., No. 63. ; our jigs. 1350. and 1351. ; and jig. 63. 
in p. 1615. 
Spec. Char.,§c. Leaves ovate, very obtuse, nearly entire, glabrous. Catkins 
of few flowers. Stem filiform, or thread-shaped. (Wahlenberg Fl. L.) A 
1349 
