■^"" AMENTACE.E [Itfyrica. 



waved, glahrous, on grooved petioles, atout an inch in lensth, running; alonfj tlie 

 under side of the leaf into tlie very prominent midrib, wilh straight parallel veins 

 and small tufts of hairs in their axils. Stipules ovate or lanceolate, entire, deci- 

 duous. Staminate catkins in terminal, forked, paniculate clusters of 4—8, on 

 rounded furfuraceo-scabrous stalks, at first purplish and erect or nodding, when 

 full-blown pendant, cylindrical-obtuse, 2—4 inches in length, glabrous. Scales 

 rusty red or purple, roundish, of 1 principal and 3 lateral mostly 2-lobed smaller 

 pieces or segments, each of which last covers a solitary sessile flower. Perianth 

 greenish, deeply 4-clert, roundish or obovate, concave and unequal. Stamens 4, 

 opposite to and shorter than the perianth, inserted near its base, sometimes sur- 

 rounding an imperfect germen ; anthers 2-lobed, yellowish or reddish, with copious 

 pale-yellow pollen, made up of transparent polyhedal granules. Pistillate catkins 

 about 2, 3, or 4 together, in similar clusters to the staminate and immediately 

 beneath the latter or partly interspersed amongst them, scarcely Jth of an inch 

 loug, ovate and erect, their scales dark red, closely imbricated, broadly ovate, 

 fleshy, smooth and somewhat pointed, 2-flowered, persistent and at length woody. 

 Perianth none. Styles 2, pale crimson, rounded, fleshy and tapering, erect or 

 slightly spreading, much longer than the scales. Germen green, compressed. 



Tribe III. Myriceje, Lindl. 



" Flowers all in catkins. Fruit drupaceous, surrounded by the 

 scales of the ovary, become fleshy and adherent.'" — Lindl. Syn. 



V. Myeica, Linn. Gale. 



"Scales of the catkins concave. — Barren floivers : — Stamens 4 or 

 8. — Fertile flowers : — Stigmas subulate. Hypogynous scales ses- 

 sile, without a gland on the inside." — Br. Fl. 



1. M. Gale, L. Stveet Gale. Dutch Myrtle. Golden Withy. 

 Vect. Sweet Withy. Golden Osier. Leaves oblongo-lanceolate 

 or subcuneate distantly serrated above, drupes tricuspidate in 

 oblong clusters. E. B. t. 563. Br. Fl. p. 378. 



In spongy bogs and wet thickets. Fl. April. Ij. 



E. Med. — Plentiful in Apse-heath withy-bed, also at the upper end of Sandown 

 level, and on the hoggy skirts of Lake common. About Blackpan. Thicket 

 above Alverstone mill. At the foot of Hill Heath or Hill Side, near Newchurch. 

 Bordwood lynch. Profusely in a tract of peaty bog not half a mile N. of Gods- 

 hill, a little beyond Munsley hill. Large willow-thicket by Budbridge farm, 

 1848. Peat-bogs along the Medina between Cridmore and Rookley. In boggy 

 meadows along the Medina and Main river, abundant in many places. 



A bushy shrub, from 2 to 6 feet in height. Stems often ascending and decum- 

 bent below and rooting, rather slender, covered with an ash-gray or reddish warty 

 bark, and with numerous twiggy branches of a reddish brown colour. Leaves 

 about 2 inches long, of a rather glaucous green, paler beneath, oblongo-lanceolate, 

 with shallow, distant, teeth-like serratures at their tips, and tapering into the very 

 short petioles. Staminate catkins erect, cylindrical, not an inch in length. Scales 

 broadly ovate, concave, pointed, slightly fringed with woolly hairs, widely spread- 

 ing when in flower, reddish at the tips. Stamens usually 4 at the base of each 

 scale ; filaments very short ; anthers erect, reddish, of 2 oblong deeply divided 

 lobes ; pollen copious, bright sulphur-yellow, fragrant. Pistillate calkins scarcely 

 Jth of an inch long, ovale, erect, their scales dark red, the lower ones fringed, shorter 

 than the fleshy, purple and spreading styles. Drupes crowded into little ovate 

 or oblong sessile clusters, covered with yellow odoriferous globules, very small, 

 longer than the persistent perianth, greenish yellow, sublunato-orbicular, tricus- 



