1228 SALIX. [CLASS XXII, ORDER I. 
Jlowers with two stigmas. Fruit a one celled follicle, with a 
gland at the base. Seeds covered with down, radicle inferior.— 
Name from sal, near ; and lis, water, in Celtic. 
Group 1. Purpurea. Koch. Borrer. (Monandre, Br. Fl.) Fila- 
ment one, with a double anther, or in S. rubra forked upwards, 
and bearing two anthers. Trees of low stature or shrubs, with 
twiggy branches, and more or less lanceolate and serrated leaves, 
often broader upwards. Catkins very compact. 
1. S. purpu'rea, Linn. (Fig. 1475) Bitter Purple Willow. Mo- 
nandrous catkin sessile, bracteated at the base; capsules ovate, 
sessile, downy; style short; stigma ovate, nearly sessile; leaves 
lanceolate, broader upwards, attenuated below, serrated, smooth, 
decumbent. 
English Botany, t. 1388.—KEnglish Flora, vol. iv. p. 187.—Salic- 
tum Woburnense,* p. 1. t. 1—Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. 
p. 354.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 232 
A small shrub, from three to four feet high, with long slender 
smooth branches, widely spreading, often trailing on the ground, of a 
rich purple, somewhat glaucous hue. eaves linear lanceolate, with 
a short footstalk, broader, and sharply serrated upwards, with an 
acute point, somewhat tapering at the base, a deep glaucous green 
above, very glaucous beneath. Catkins appearing before the foliage, 
almost sessile, solitary, erect, cylindrical, very dense, bracteated at 
the base. Scales obovate, hairy, black, tipped, gland small, opposite 
the scale. Stamen solitary, with a four celled anther. Style very 
short. Stigmas ovate, small, obtuse, thick, persistent. Capsule ovate, 
hoary. 
Habitat—Meadows between Thorpe and Norwich; Eskdale, 
Melrose . 
Shrub ; flowering in March. 
The long slender shoots of this plant are much esteemed for the 
finer kind of basket work. It is frequently planted in Norfolk, 
Suffolk, and some parts of Essex, “ for platting into low close fences, 
to keep out hares and rabbits, the leaves and bark being so intensely 
bitter, that those animals will not touch either. The twigs, more- 
in his Synopsis of the British Flora. We have adopted the former system, 
as seeming the best suited to our present knowledge of the limits of the 
species and their varieties; but we have given the arrangement of Koch, at 
the end of our descriptions, that the student may have the advantage of 
both systems before him. 
* This is an admirable work by his Grace the Duke of Bedford, of which 
we are sorry to say only a very limited number have been printed. It illus- 
trates by figures and descriptions all the British Willows known at the time 
of its compilation, besides many exotic species. The arrangement of the 
“Salictum,” is that of Mr. Forbes, head gardener, at Woburn. 
