ILLUSTRATIONS. 17 



ing tree, whose branches are, during summer, clothed with 

 broadly-ovate pointed leaves. In early spring however, before 

 the leaves appear, the buds along the twigs burst open, and 

 each developes a dense cluster of reddish flowers surrounded 

 by brownish bracts that soon fall away. The flowers are 

 mostly hermaphrodite, and consist of a bell -shaped perianth 

 with from four to six teeth and as many stamens. The ovary 

 is flat, with two short diverging styles, and is succeeded by a 

 flat thin leaf-like or winged seed. 



The common Sallow,^ one of the Amentiferse or Catkin-bear- 

 ing family, is of a different character, though part of the same 

 great Monochlamydeous division of Dicotyledons. The large 

 family of Sallows and Willows consists of trees and shrubs, with 

 unisexual flowers growing in catkins in early spring on the 

 leafless twigs, the male catkins being produced on distinct plants 

 from those which bear the females. The common Sallow itself 

 is a tall shrub with broadish -ovate or oblong greyish downy 

 leaves. The catkins of the male plants are cylindrically ob- 

 long, an inch long or more, formed of overlapping silky-hairy 

 scales, but no perianth ; in the axil of each scale are placed two 

 stamens, which are longer than the scale itself, so that the 

 fully developed catkins are rather conspicuous from the crowded 

 prominent yellow anthers. The female catkins are longer 

 and narrower, and have in the axils of the scales, instead of a 

 pair of stamens, a silky ovary, which tapers into a longish beak 

 and is terminated by the forked stigmas. Notwithstanding 

 the bright gleam of vegetable beauty which at this early 

 season the Sallow affords in its favourite haunts by the 

 streamlet^s margin, in moist coppice woods, or overhanging 

 a watery ditch, it may have probably escaped the attention 

 of many who may been attracted by these golden ' palms' of 

 * Salix Caprea, Plate 5 B. 



C 



