SALICACEAE 277 



gl. Amenta precocious, lateral and sessile; stamens 2; ovary pedicellate. 

 t Amenta ovoid, or shortrcylindric ; leaves entire, or obscurely wavy-toothed, hairy, or 

 woolly, margins revolute. 



1. S. trist is. Ait. Leaves subsessile, oblanceolate, or cuneate- 

 oblong, acute, or the lower ones obtuse ; ovary with a long tapering 

 beak, silvery -pilose ; style short. 



S. longirostris. MX. ? $ Fl. Cestr. ed. 2. p. 658. 

 SAD, OR DARK SALIX. Dwarf Grey Willow. 



Stem 1 to 2 feet high, often decumbent, slender, much branched, with a dingy 

 dark-green bark, the young branches clothed with a short cinereous pubescence ; 

 terminal buds often enlarged into truncated cones, or more frequently turbinated. 

 Leaves % to 1% inches long; petioles scarcely a line in length. Pistillate aments 

 i^ to J^ an inch long; scales obovate, silky-pilose, blackish at apex; ovaries on 

 pedicels nearly twice as long as the scales. 

 Hob. Woodlands, and thickets; on slaty hills: frequent. FL April. Fr. May. 



Obs. The student who undertakes to master this formidable 

 genus, will find it necessary to note various minute features which 

 would escape a common observer; and he should, moreover, at- 

 tend to the characters as exhibited, at different stages of the plants, 

 both by the fructification, and the foliage. Great care is requisite, 

 also, to prevent confusion in the Herbarium, which is apt to result 

 from the collections being made at different times, and then mixing 

 together aments, and leaves, belonging to different species. My 

 amiable and lamented friend, the late Rev. Mr. SCHWEINITZ, used 

 jocularly to say, that if a Botanist were to commit a very grave 

 penitentiary offence, his punishment should be, to prepare a com- 

 plete monograph of the Solidagines I I incline to the opinion, how- 

 ever, that it would be a much severer sentence, to require a perfect 

 monograph of the Salices. 



2. S. IHI ill i I is. Marshall. Leaves petiolate, lance-oblong, and 

 obovate-lanceolate, acute, or obtuse with an abrupt point; ovary 

 acuminate, pubescent ; style manifest. 



S. conifera. Fl. Cestr. ed. 2. p. 558. 

 HUMBLE SALIX. Bush Willow. 



Stem 3 to 6 feet high, much branched, with a dark greenish-brown bark, the 

 young branches densely clothed with a soft cinereous tomentum. leaves strongly 

 veined and tomentose beneath, 1% to 4 or 5 inches long, and an inch wide, in the 

 large forms, while in the small forms, they closely approach those of the preced- 

 ing species ; petioles 1 line to % of an inch long. Pistillate aments about an inch 

 in length, often recurved; capsules tawny ; coma of the seeds long and copious, 

 Hob. Low grounds; borders of thickets : frequent. FL April. Fr. May. 



Obs. This is, doubtless, the S. conifera, of PURSH. Several species, 

 however, bear cones at the extremities of the branches, 

 t f Aments cylindric, large ; ovaries densely sillcy ; leaves smooth and shining above ; 

 glaucous beneath, finally smooth. 



3. S. discolor, Mukl? Leaves obovate-lanceolate, and lance- 

 oblong, irregularly serrate, or entire; scales ovate, or oblong, 

 obtuse, nearly black, very hairy, [not S. discolor, of Fl. Cestr. 

 ed. 2.] 



S. recurvata. Fl. Cestr. ed. 2. p. 557. 

 TWO-COLORED SALIX. Glaucous Willow. 



