1274 SALIX. [CLASS XXII. ORDER I. 
Group 18. Herbacee, Borr. A minute shrub, remarkable for its 
small few flowered catkins. 
68. S. herba'cea, Linn. (Fig. 1537.) Least Willow. Catkins ter- 
minal, of few flowers; capsule lanceolate, smooth; style cleft ; 
stigmas bifid; leaves orbicular, serrated, smooth and ylossy, veiny, on 
a short stalk. 
English Botany, t. 1907.--English Flora, vol. 4 p. 199.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 373.—Salict. Wob. p. ‘123. t, 62.— 
Lindley, Synopsis, p. 238. 
Stem slender, procumbent, branched, smooth, dark brown, with 
long branched fibrous roots, branches erect, about an inch long, 
slender, bearing one or two leaves, and terminating in a few 
flowered catkin. JZeaves orbicular, or somewhat ovate, sometimes 
notched, a smooth shining green, reticulated with veins on both sides, 
the footstalk short, mostly reddish. Stipules wanting. Catkins lax, 
few flowered, the footstalk downy. Scales ovate, smooth, or nearly 
so, or fringed with long hairs. Capsules lanceolate, with an ovate 
base, nearly sessile. Style variable in length, mostly cleft at the top. 
Stigmas spreading, bifid. 
Habitat.—High Mountains of England, Scotland, and Wales. 
Shrub ; flowering in June. 
This interesting little plant is one of the least shrubs known, 
seldom exceeding in height above the surface of the soil one or two 
inches, though its prostrate stem may be much longer; indeed Dr. 
Graham says that plants growing in the Botanic Garden of Edin- 
burgh, have acquired a prostrate woody stem, two to three feet long, 
and nearly as thick as the little finger. ‘This is, perhaps, one of the 
best examples we could have of the difference there is produced in 
the Willow, by being cultivated, for it is never found in its wild 
native mountains more than a few inches long, and thicker than pack 
thread; and we think that the same changes may be produced by 
other species grown in plantations, &c., and then described as species. 
This is the least of the Willows, if not the least known shrub; so 
diminutive is it that many of these plants, when full grown, fruit, 
leaves, stem, and roots, altogether do not weigh more than from ten 
to twenty grains each. It grows in the most elevated situation of 
any shrub in this country, and we believe also in Switzerland. 
Group 19. Hastate, Borr. Low shrubs, with very broad leaves, and 
exceedingly shaggy and silky catkins. 
69. S. hasta'ta, Linn. (Fig. 1538.) Apple-leaved Willow. Catkins 
on leafy stalks; capsules subulate, on short stalks; style long; 
stigmas bifid ; scales ovate, very shaggy, with long silky hairs; leaves 
broadly ovate, elliptical, waved, thin, crackling, glabrous, glaucous 
beneath ; stipules large, half heart-shaped, serrated. 
Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 373.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 
