172 DIOECIA— DIANDRIA. Salix. 



bearded at the base ; the common stalk or receptacle is also 

 hairy. Fertile catkins about the same size, often 2 inches long, 

 their receptacle, and base of the scales, hairy, Germens smooth, 

 ovate, elongated and contracted in their upper part, much 

 longer than the scales, each on a very short stalk. Style thick, 

 scarcely so long as the deeply-cloven stigmas. 

 For its beauty and fragrance this Willow deserves cultivation in 

 gardens, but its use in other respects is inferior to many. The 

 dyeing quality, mentioned in Fl. Suec, rather belongs to the 

 supposed variety, first distinguished as a species in Rees's 

 Cyclopcedia, by the name of ^iwc^oria, and whose branches serve 

 to bind down thatch in the south of Sweden, where that plant 

 grows wild, 



6. S. 7iigricans. Dark-broad -leaved Willow. 



Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, acute, crenate ; smooth, with a 

 downy rib, above; glaucous beneath. Stamens two, 

 thrice the length of the hairj' scales. Germen lanceolate, 

 downy, on a short downy stalk. 



S, nigricans. Sm. Tr. of L. Soc.v.Q. \20. Fl.Br.\M7. Engl. 

 Bot.vA7.i.\2\3. Comp.edA.lQl. mild. Sp. PI. v. 4. 6^9. 



S. phylicifolia /3, Linn. Sp. PI. 1442. Fl. Lapp. n. 350. t. 8./.C. 

 Herb. Linn. 



In fens, osier-grounds, woods and thickets. 



At Wrongay fen, Norfolk. Mr. Crowe. Near Shobden Court, 

 Herefordshire. Mr. Dickson. 



Shrub. April. 



A large bushy shrub, scarcely attaining the height or form of a 

 tree, with upright, round, stout, rather brittle branches, smooth 

 except when young. Leaves 2 or 3 inches long and 1 inch 

 broad, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, or somewhat pointed ; a little 

 rounded, and sometimes unequal, at the base ; unequally cre- 

 nate almost throughout j the upper side dark-green, turning 

 black in drying, quite smooth, even at an early period, except 

 the mid-rib, which is generally finely downy ; the under side 

 glaucous, veiny, sometimes besprinkled with small scattered 

 hairs, the mid-rib also being more or less hairy. Footstalks 

 half an inch long, stout ; downy above ; greatly dilated at their 

 base. Stipulas, if present, rather large, about half the length 

 of the footstalks, obliquely heart-shaped, crenate, veiny, smooth. 

 Catkins much earlier than the foliage, solitary at the ends of 

 short lateral shoots, beset with a few small leaves. The barren 

 ones an inch or inch and half long, rather thick ; their scales 

 obovate, hairy, brown in their upper half, white in the lower. 

 Filam. 2, nearly thrice the length of the scales, hairy at the 

 base, slender, swelling upward. ^«i/i..of 2 oval lobes, yellow, 

 subsequently brown. Fertile catkins (on tlie La})land specimens) 



