470 LXXI. SALICINE^. [Salix. 



use of this and other willows in those tracts is to furnish cattle-fodder. The 

 trees are pollarded every 3d or 4th year, at higher elevations every 5th year. 

 This is done in spring, before the new leaves appear, the smaller twigs are given 

 unstripped with the bark of the larger branches, the wood of these being used 

 as fuel. In Lahoul the leaves of willows, like the leaves of most available trees, 

 are used as litter for cattle. 



S. insig?iis, Anders. ; DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 262 Vern. Bitsu, Pb. ; Gir, Kash- 

 mir, is a large shrub or small tree, with many strong branches, with tomentose 

 branchlets and semicordate stipules ; differs from S. daphnoides by hairy cap- 

 sules and glabrous, large, obtuse, black scales of the female catkins. Not com- 

 mon. Kashmir (5000-8000 ft.), Piti (9000-12,000 ft.) 



10. S. viminalis, Linn.; Hook. Stud. FL 340 ; Eeichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ, 

 t. 597. Osier, osier blanc, French; Korbweide, German. Vern. Bitsu. 



A shrub or small tree, young shoots with dense grey silky pubescence. 

 Leaves linear-lanceolate, margin revolute, 4-5 in. long, pubescent or glab- 

 rate above, densely clothed beneath with soft matted silky tomentuni ; 

 stipules lanceolate. Flowers before the leaves ; scales of catkins brown or 

 black at the apex, fringed with long silky hairs. Male catkins sessile, 

 erect, cylindric, 1 in. long; stamens 2, anthers elliptic, yellow. Female 

 catkins subsessile, cylindric, 2-4 in. long; capsules \ in. long, grey-tomen- 

 tose, subsessile, narrowed into a long slender style, longer than the diver- 

 gent stigmas. S. Smithiana, Willd., supposed to be a hybrid of S. vim- 

 inalis and Gaprea, has semicordate stipules, the leaves often broader, and 

 style shorter than the stigmas. 



Panjab, Himalaya, Jhelam and Chenab, 5000-9000 ft. Kashmir. Dras 

 to 10,000 ft. Baspa valley, Kunawar at 9000 ft., Lahoul. S. Smithiana in 

 Sikkim 5000-8000 ft. Common throughout Europe, where it is the principal 

 and most valuable willow of Osier-beds, on account of its long and tenacious 

 branches, in Siberia, Songaria, and on the Amur. Fl. March, April. 



S. incana, Schrank ; Eeichenb. Ic. t. 596, has the foliage of viminalis, but the 

 catkins are (not at first) pedunculate, the scales and capsules are glabrous. The 

 stamens are more or less connate at the base. South Europe, Asia Minor. 



11. S. pycnostachya, And.; DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 309. Vern. Ghang- 

 ma. "West Tibet. 



A shrub or a small tree, young shoots silky-pubescent ; branchlets vio- 

 let, brown red or blackish, smooth, shining. Leaves glabrous when full- 

 grown, lanceolate, entire or serrulate, 2-3 in. long, midrib prominent, 

 lateral nerves numerous, oblique, not conspicuous. Flowers after the 

 leaves, scales fringed with long soft hairs. Male catkins cylindric, nod- 

 ding, on leaf-bearing peduncles ; scales brown, oblong, obtuse ; stamens 2, 

 filaments connate to the apex or nearly so. Female catkins cylindric, 

 compact, nodding, 2 in. long; scales black at the top, capsules sessile, 

 silky (glabrous, Andersson); style short, thicker at the top, stigmas 2, 

 broad, bifid. 



At high elevations in the inner arid Himalaya, not common. Zanskar 



