AMENTACEzE. 



705 



or more, erect and taller when cultivated 

 in rich soils ; the foliage and young 

 shoots more or less densely silky -white. 

 Leaves oblong or lanceolate, under an 

 inch long, rarely shortly ovate, or in 

 luxuriant shoots narrow-oblong, \\ 

 inches long, usually entire or nearly so, 

 and silky on both sides. Catkins cy- 

 lindrical, usually about 6 lines long, 

 and sessile when in flower, with a few 

 leafy bracts at the base ; when in fruit 

 the peduncle lengthens, and the catkin 

 often attains an inch. Capsules pedi- 

 cellate, usually silky, seldom 2 lines long. 

 On heaths, moors, and sandy places, 

 in Arctic, northern, and central Eu- 

 rope, and Eussian Asia, more rare in 



southern Europe. Common in Britain. Fl. spring. Varieties rather 

 less creeping, with the leaves somewhat wrinkled, and the white down 

 rather more cottony, distinguished under the names of S. ambigua or 

 S. versifolia, showing in some respects a connection between the round- 

 eared W. and the creeping W., are asserted by German botanists to be 

 accidental hybrids between those two species. 



Fig. 919. 



11. Downy Willow. Salix Lapponum, Linn. (Eig. 920.) 



(S. arenaria, Eng. Bot. t. 1809, S. glauca, t. 1810, S. Stuartiana, 

 t. 2586.) 



A spreading, much branched shrub, 

 usually low and scrubby, sometimes at- 

 taining 2 or 3 feet or even more when 

 it descends into rich valleys. Leaves 

 oblong or lanceolate, pointed, and en- 

 tire, covered on both sides with a white 

 cottony down, or, when old, becoming 

 nearly glabrous above. Catkins closely 

 sessile, with a few deciduous bracts at 

 their base ; when in flower about an 

 inch long, thick, with long, dense, silky 

 hairs ; when in fruit lengthening to 1^ 

 or 2 inches. Capsules sessile, cottony, 

 about 2 lines long. 



In mountain pastures, and wet, bushy 

 places, in northern and Arctic Europe, 



Fig. 920. 



