THE WILLOWS OF OHIO. 305 



Salix Candida Fluegge. Sage Willow, Hoary Willow. 



This little shrub seldom grows more than a meter tall. It 

 may be recognized anywhere by its leaves which are narrowly 

 oblong and re volute, veins deeply depressed on the upper sur- 

 face and prominent below ; under side covered with a thick white 

 tomentum contrasting strongly with the rich dark green of the 

 upper surface, petiole short and stipules lacking. Flowers ap- 

 pearing before the leaves ; ovularies densely covered with silvery 

 white wool, nearly sessile, with a very long conspicuous deep 

 rose red style like no other of our species ; staminate catkins with 

 few bracts below them and hardly presenting diagnostic charac- 

 ters ; small and delicate resembling those of 5. bebbiana some- 

 what but easily distinguished from them by the dark colored 

 scales. 



Salix Candida is quite rare in Ohio. It was first reported by 

 Mr. Moseley from Castalia prairie but has since been found in 

 Wyandot county also. It ranges over the eastern and northern 

 portions of North America. But in the west and north the 

 leaves apparently become broader almost elliptical and not mark- 

 edly revolute. 



Salix Candida hybridises with S. cordata, with 5. sericea and 

 with 5. petiolaris. At Castalia a fine series of hybrids with 5. 

 cordata and 5. petiolaris may be found. 



CORDATAE. 



The cordatae are a group of shrub willows with very variable 

 leaves, characterized by glabrous capsules borne from wooly 

 pussies. A peculiarity of the opening buds is that the inner bud 

 scale grows out beyond the outer, enveloping the base of the 

 ament and looking like the wing of a beetle imperfectly folded 

 under the elytron. This so far as I know occurs in no other 

 group and is therefore an important diagnostic character at a 

 time when the species are particularly hard to separate. In this 

 state the species though variable are fairly well marked but in 

 the west the group is represented by a number of forms whose 

 relationships have not been satisfactorily worked out as yet. 



Plate XII. Salix Candida (left )and Salix petiolaris (right.) 

 5- Candida — typical but rather short leaves, other parts typical; 

 natural size; capsule and carpellate flower enlarged three times, photo- 

 graphed and brightened. 



S. petiolaris — leafy twig of the extreme type farthest from 5. sericea, 

 with shiny, glaucous, glabrous leaves; two small leaves belonging to the 

 variety gracilis in the lower corner; flowers and fruit typical, natural size; 

 capsule enlarged three times. 



