Vol. xiv. No. 3 -Botanical Gazette— Mar., 1889. 



Notes on North American Willows. III. 



M. S. BEBB. 



(with PLATE IX.) 



The Lanatve group. — -No more striking" contribution to 

 •our knowledge of American willows was ever made than 

 when in the Flora Boreali-Americana was published, simul- 

 taneously, three new species of this group. Of these, Salix 

 Richardsonii would be recognized at the present day as a 

 •close geographical equivalent of one of the most beautiful 

 willows of northern Europe ;* S. Barratliana, differing more 

 widely from the European prototype, is still said to be " equal 

 to it in beauty," with u male catkins two inches long, splen- 

 didly silky n (Hooker) ; while the third, S. Hooker iana, if 

 apparently less showy than the other two, is more interesting 

 and unique than either. When we consider the marked 

 character of the species and the prominence given to their 

 publication, each having been accorded a full plate illustra- 

 tion, it is strange that two of the number should remain to 

 the present day known to science only through the old tvpe 

 specimens, while concerning the third, which is common on 

 our west coast, there has since been published onlv Mr. 

 Nuttall's observations, and Tjuite recently Prof. Sargent's 

 account of its littoral habitat and tree-like size. 



Through the generous assistance of friends afield or hav- 

 ing access to the great herbaria of the world, I am happily 

 enabled to break the spell of obscurity which has so long 

 hung over this interesting group. Fresh facts concerning S. 

 Hookeriana have been brought together ; the long lost stam- 

 inate aments of S. Rtc/uwdsonit have been found, and that, 

 too, among Dr. Richardson's own collections ; to this species 

 a new variety is added ; and, finally, I have the satisfaction 

 to report the rediscoverv of S. Barrattiana! 



i. S. lanata L. Eastern British America north of the 

 Arctic circle and Greenland. (Hook. Arc. PI.) I have not 

 seen specimens. 



1 Wahlenberg says of S. lanata, u Est facile pulcherrima Salix in Suecia ne dicam in 

 mundo toto." 



