DIOECIA— DIANDRIA. Salix. 217 



/3. S. caprea pumila, folio subrotundo, subtus incano. Dill, in 

 Rail Sijii. 4;i0. 



S. aurita. IVilld. Sp. PL v. 4. 700 ; excluding the specific char. 

 Emm. 1007. 



In moist upland woods and thickets. 



/3. In low wet pastures. 



Shrub. JprU, May. 



Stem bushy, usually 3 or 4 feet high ; in the variety /3 scarcely a 

 foot. Branches spreading or trailing, either amongst other 

 bushes, or on the ground, to a great extent, whence the name 

 of Trailing Sallow by which it is known in Norfolk ; they are 

 roundish, brown, hoary J rather angular, purplish, and downy, 

 as well as leafy, when young. Leaves various in size, on short, 

 stout, downy footstalks, obovate, generally an inch or two long, 

 more or less contracted toward the base, though sometimes 

 rounded, or nearly ovate, in that part; their termination is 

 often remarkably obtuse, or abrupt, with abroad, short, recurved, 

 hooked, or oblique, point ; both sides hairy and very rugged ; 

 the uppermost dark green, wrinkled like a cabbage leaf; under 

 side paler, rather glaucous, more hairy or downy, and strongly 

 veined ; the margin in some measure revolute, coarsely serrated 

 and crisped. The earliest leaves, appearing soon after the 

 blossoms, are but i or f of an inch long, abrupt and entire ; 

 very densely downy beneath ; similar to which, though partly 

 serrated and less hoary, is the whole foliage of the variety /3. 

 Stipulas half-heartshaped, or rounded, convex, strongly veined 

 and toothed, as well as wrinkled ; glaucous and vaulted beneath ; 

 very various in size, but never wholly absent. Catkins before 

 the leaves, nearly or quite sessile, elliptic-oblong, with very 

 small, lanceolate, hairy bracteas; barren ones not an inch long 

 at most; fertile longer, especially as they advance in age. 

 Scales oblong-lanceolate, or narrowly obovate, thin, bearded, 

 whitish with a brown tip, soon withering. Nect. a tumid, 

 abrupt, yellowish gland. Stam. twice the length of their scale. 

 Germ, on a hairy stalk, which is hardly equal to the scale ; ovate, 

 or, when fully formed, more lanceolate and tapering, all over 

 downy, or silky. Style scarcely any. Stigmas ovate, thick, 

 finally notched. The leaves occasionally form permanent rosace- 

 ous tufts, like those of S. Helix, n. 22. 



There are some gradations between the common appearance of 

 this Salix, and its ultimate very small-leaved variety ^ ; but, 

 on the other hand, I scarcely think Dillenius correct in saymg 

 there were " some pretty tall trees of it in hedges near Chissel- 

 hurst." These must rather have been the cinerea, or the aqua- 

 tica. Botanists, even the most attentive, have confounded both 

 these species occasionally with the present, and have gone so 

 lar as to suppose them all varieties of -S. caprea. 

 1 have received, by favour of Mr. H. Potter, two specimens of |3, 



