230 DIOECIA— DIANDRIA. Salix. 



nearly sessile, small, elliptical. Bracteas few, linear-lanceolate, 

 acute, covered at the back with long silky hairs. Scales obovate, 

 dark brown upwards, reaching to the middle of the silky, ovate- 

 lanceolate, stalked germen, and clothed with long dense hairs, 

 not reaching to its top. AVc<. ovate-oblong, bluntish. Style at 

 first but half the length of the linear, deeply cloven, stlgimts ; 

 but becoming afterwards about as long. Caps, silky, tapering, 

 on a hairy stalk, and tipped with the permanent style and stig- 

 mas. 

 This was given to Mr. Crowe for the true Velvet Osier, and its 

 remarkable softness suggested tlie name of Salix mollissma ; 

 which we afterwards discovered, as we thought, to have been 

 given to the same species by Ehrhart. But his molUssima I 

 have lately ascertained to be totally distinct, in catkins as well 

 as leaves ; which Wilidenow first perceiving, was pleased to give 

 our English plant the appellation here adopted. His holosericea 

 is, 1 believe, the Velvet Osier. Both that and the molUssima 

 are German, not British, natives. It is important for cultiva- 

 tors of Osiers to distinguish them carefully, for the Velvet Osier 

 is, for some kinds of work, greatly esteemed ; whereas S. Smith- 

 iana, notwithstanding the account received by Mr. Crowe, see 

 Fl. Brit. 1070, proves of no utility. 



63. S. stipularis, Auiicled Osier. 



Leaves lanceolate, pointed, slightly wavy, obscurely cre- 

 nate ; soft and nearly naked above ; white and downy 

 beneath. Stipnlas half-heartshaped, stalked, very large. 

 Nectary cylindrical. Germen ovate, nearly sessile, as 

 well as the linear, undivided stigmas. 



S. stipularis. f /.£/■. 1069. Engl. Bot.v.\7.t.\2\A. Rees's CycL 

 ra. 136. Hook. Scot. 286. Willcl.Sp.Pl.v.4.70S. 



In osier-holts, hedges and woods. 



Near Bury St. Edmund's. 3Ir. Crowe. Common in hedges and 

 woods in Scotland; Mr. David Don. Hooker, 



Shrub. March. 



Twigs upright, tall, soft and downy, of a pale reddish brown, brittle, 

 and of little or no use as an Osier. Leaves almost upright, nu- 

 merous, about a span long, sharp-pointed, unequally and slightly 

 crenate ; green, even and soft, though hardly downy, above ; finely 

 downy, and whitish, beneath, with a nearly smooth, reddish, or 

 pale, midrib, and remarkably downy, as it were fringed, vein.s. 

 Footstalks stout, half or three quarters of an inch long. Stipulaspe- 

 culiar,beingmore or less stalked,half-heartshaped, taper-pointed, 

 erect, longer than the footstalks, toothed, or lobed, on the outer 

 side at the base, downy at the back. Catkins much earlier than 

 the foliage, numerous, almost sessile, erect, with a few lanceo- 

 late, acute, silky bracteas j the barren ones rather above an inch 



