220 DIOECIA-DIANDRIA. Salix. 



acquiring by time a portion of the rusty hue of S. cinerea. Their 

 substance is firm, rather coriaceous ; and in their earliest state 

 they are densely downy. Footstalks rather short, downy. Sti- 

 pulas either wanting, or small, never large ; when most conspi- 

 cuous they are recurved, or vaulted, often cloven. Catkins 

 remarkably large, thick, sessile, with a very few, peculiarly 

 small, haii-y bracteas ; their shape an oblong oval ; their length 

 an inch or more ; their diameter, including the stamens, above 

 half as much. Scales obovate-oblong, half blackish, hairy. Nect. 

 obtuse. Stam. much longer than the scale, with large golden 

 anthers. 

 Mr. Borrer has communicated, from Sussex, a truly wonderful 

 monstrosity, observed by him for several successive years, in 

 which several of the upper catkins, on some branches of this spe- 

 cies, gradually change their nature. First the stamens of each 

 Jloret are formed, more or less, combined, some entirely so, an 

 apparently simple filament bearing 2 anthers. Further down 

 there are catkins whose lower part consists of shapeless oblong 

 smooth bodies, resembling germens, tipped with two simple 

 minute horns, as if the antlters were replaced by imperfect stig- 

 mas; and there are one or two rudiments of more complete, 

 somewhat silky, germens, with 2 sessile undivided stigmas. Their 

 precise nature cannot be ascertained, without mutilating this 

 very curious specimen. The real fertile catkins I have not ex- 

 amined ■ but it is to be presumed their pistils do not much differ 

 from the rest of the Sallow tribe, all very nearly resembling each 

 other in those organs. The specimen here described invalidates 

 an opinion advanced in my Introduction to Botany, ed. 1. 276, 

 ed. 5. 220, that " stamens and pistils never change into each 

 other." The intelligent botanist will make his own observations, 

 and may perhaps trace the progress of so strange a metamor- 

 phosis. 



53. S. cothufolia. Quince-leaved Sallow. 



Stem erect. Branches spreading, downy. Leaves broadly 

 elliptical, nearly orbicular, slightly toothed ; glaucous 

 and downy, with rectangular veins, beneath. Style as 

 lonff as the linear notched stiffmas. 



o o 



S. cotinifolia. FZ. jBr. 1066. EngZ. £o<. «.20. <. 1403. Rees'sCycl. 

 n. 120. Willd. Sp. PI. V.4. 702. Hook. Scot. 286. 



S. spadicea. Villars Dauph. v. 3. 777. From the author. 



In thickets and woods. 



Sent from Scotland by Mr. Dickson to Mr. Crowe, who found it 

 himself, in some of the upland parts of Norfolk. " By the road- 

 side between Newton Stewart and Glenluce, Wigtonshire ; 

 Mr. Maughan ; on the banks of the Esk, near Forfar, but rare ; 

 Mr. G. Don ;" Hooker. 



