February 15, 1912 »35 



quite distinct from the Mt. Rose plant. Heller collected it in 

 the Ruby or Hast Humboldt mountains in August, 1908. In 

 this the leaves are oblong or elliptical oblong and acutish at both 

 ends, green above, glaucous beneath. The stigma is nearly 

 sessile. 



Jepson, in his Flora of California 345, evidently considers 

 S. petrophila as a synonym of 5. tenera Anders. He ascribes 

 the character "densely flowered" to the catkins, while Rydberg, 

 both in his key and in the description, has catkins "few flow- 

 ered." By few flowered we understand such species as S. niv- 

 alis Hook., illustrated in NuttalTs North American Sylva//. 

 /p, along with 5. liitea^ but the former is not separated by name 

 from the latter on the plate. Here we have seven flowers. 



Our plant is densely flowered; that is, it has 40 to 50 flow- 

 ers. The leaves are all densely pubescent above, at least until 

 the catkins are mature. Beyond that we have no knowledge. 

 Coulter and Nelson in New Manual of Rocky Mountain Botany 

 136, describe 5. petrophila as having glabrate or glabrous leaves. 

 Rydberg in his key uses "leaves glabrous, or when young cov- 

 ered with long white hairs parallel to the midrib, in age gener- 

 ally glabrate." In Howell's Flora of Northwest America no 

 mention is made of any pubescence on the leaves. 



If the species in literature have been accuratelv keyed and 

 described, then our plant shows characters sufficiently different 

 for us to propose it as a new species. It may be described as 

 follows: 

 1/ Salix caespitosa n. sp. 



Densely caespitose: branches interlacing, leafy shoots 2 to 

 4cm. long: leaves elliptical and acuminate at both ends, light 

 gray-green above and beneath, upper surface densely pilose, 

 lower sparsely so, blade 18 mm. long, 8 mm. wide, petiole 3 mm. 

 long: pistillate flower catkins extending beAond the leaves, 40 

 to 50 flowered, 2 to 3 cm. long, .scale brown, minute, 1.2 mm. 

 long, I mm. wide, obovate-cuneate, tuft of long hairs at apex; 

 capsule 5 mm. long, densely silky; style i mm. long, stigmas 

 bifid, divaricate: staminate flower catkins .'shorter, 1.5 to 2 cm. 



