330 



COVILLE 



Specimens have been examined as follows : 



Cook Inlet. — In bogs at Kasilof, Walter H. Evans, 1898 (Nos. 

 682, 726). 



Kadiak Island, — In a bog at the head of a lake about a mile and 

 a half from the village of Kadiak, F. A. Walpole, 1900. 



Alaska Peninsula. — At Kukak Bay, Coville and Kearney (No. 

 1660). 



Norton Sound. — At Unalaklik, Frederick Funston, 1894 (No. 

 232). 



St. Lawrence Island. — On the marshy tundra at Northeast Cape, 

 Coville and Kearney (No. 2002), Trelease and Saunders (Nos. 3443, 

 in part, 3444), Cole. 



St. Matthew Island. — On the tundra, Coville and Kearney (No. 

 2087a). 



Siberian Coast. — At Plover Bay, W. H. Dall, 1865-6, Coville and 

 Kearney (No. 1856), Cole. 



In his original description Andersson gave the range of- this species 

 as "in Kamtschatka (Beechy et Mertens), ad Alaxa (Kostalski), ad 

 ostium fl. Uda, ad sinus Manga, Nichta, Ujakon, et in insula Schan- 



tar (Middend.)," and he found it also 

 among the Kotzebue plants from Esch- 

 scholtz Bay and Shishmaref Bay or Inlet, 

 in Kotzebue Sound. It has been impos- 

 sible to consult any of these specimens, 

 and our identifications of the species rests 

 on descriptions alone. In Hooker and 

 Arnott's Botany of Captain Beechey's 

 Voyage and various subsequent publi- 

 cations the species w^as misidentified as S. 

 rhamnifolia Pallas. Among the Alaskan 

 species fuscescens most nearly resembles 

 ovalifolia^ but may readily be distin- 

 guished by the characters given in the 

 key. Its nearest relative among North American w^illows is Salix 

 myrtilloides L., a circumpolar species occurring on our continent 

 chiefly on the eastern side, in bogs, and apparently not extending 

 northwestward to Alaska. The n?im.Q fuscescens wsiS given to the plant 

 to indicate the tendency of the yovmg leaves to turn blackish in drying, 

 a phenomenon characteristic, however, of several other species of 

 willows. 



Fig. 25. Saii'x /uscescens 

 Anders. : a, pistillate flower- 

 ing twig, natural size ; I), 

 pistillate flower, enlarged six 

 diameters ; c, mature leaf, 

 natural size. 



