BUSHY WILLOWS 257 



or so, and very variable. The under-sides of the leaves are 

 tomentose, with rather broad stipules. It flowers very 

 early in spring. Buds usually smooth and yellow or 

 tawny ; the flowering buds very large. The variety 

 cinerea, however, is tomentose throughout and the dis- 

 tinctions between these two and S. aurita are critical (see 

 p. 252). Twigs yellowish or olive to dark brown ; shoots 

 grey-tomentose. Old bark coarsely fissured. 



8 8 Leaves narrower, more or less 

 lanceolate, not conspicuously 

 wrinkled. Tivigs on the whole 

 brown. 



Salix nigricans, Sm. Black Willow. Large bushy 

 shrub 10 12 feet high, with more or less ovate, not 

 wrinkled, glabrous leaves, which are glaucous beneath. 

 Stipules large. Shoots grey-tomentose, passing to chestnut- 

 brown or red dish -olive branches, and retaining their hairy 

 covering for some time. Buds hairy and reddish. 



The critical distinctions from the usually more glabrous 

 8. phylicifolia, L., the Tea-leafed Willow, cannot be dealt 

 with here. Both are extremely variable, and pass towards 

 S. Caprea and 8. Myrsinites. 



Here also may be placed the more bushy forms of 

 S. daphnoides, easily recognised by the white waxy bloom 

 on its plum-purple to nearly black, smooth, older twigs ; 

 S. triandra and S. pentandra with three and five stamens 

 each instead of two, the common number for our Willows ; 

 also S. purpurea with one stamen (really two fused into 

 one), the distinctive characters of which are founded on 

 critical points apart from habit. 



-r -T- Buds not with a single scale ; 

 flower* not in catkins; fruits not 

 capsular and seeds not comose. 

 Dwarf-shoots conspicuous as nodu- 

 lose " spurs," ringed by leaf -scars. 



w. v. 17 



