276 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



is rather slender, and branched ; and the paked leaves are broadly 

 ovate below, narrower above, obtuse, very shortly stalked, and either 

 entire or slightly toothed. The flowers are only a quarter of an 

 inch long, shortly stalked, and usually placed singly in the axils 

 of the leaves. The calyx has two hps, the upper of wliich bears, on 



the middle of its back, a 

 prominent hollow scale ; 

 and the corolla has a long 

 tube with two small hps, 

 the lower of which is 

 divided into tliree lobes. 



The Dwarf SUky 

 Willow {Salix repens — 

 order Salicacece) is very 

 common on heaths. It 

 is a small, straggling 

 shrub, from one to tliree 

 feet high, sometimes 

 erect, but more commonly 

 procumbent and rooting 

 at the base, with slender 

 branches. Its leaves are 

 often less than an inch in 

 length, oblong or narrow, 

 with recurved margins, 

 shining above and silky 

 below. When young, the 

 leaves are silky on both 

 sides ; and the young 

 twigs and the buds are 

 also clothed with a silky 

 down. The flowers are 

 imperfect, and are in 

 short, sessile, erect, oblong catkins, which appear in April and early 

 May, before the leaves. . The male and female flowers grow on 

 difi'erent shrubs ; but in both cases the catkins are about half an 

 inch long, with a few leafy bracts at the base, and the flowers 

 are intermixed with silky scales. The cajisules split when 

 ripe, liberating numerous minute seeds that are tufted with long, 

 white, silky hairs. 



The Juniper {Junipenis communis), one of the few British 



THE Autumnal Lady's Tresses. 



