262 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
to the scales of the ament; and the scales are manifestly only 
modified leaves. This subject I have treated at length in my 
manuscript essay on the willows, and can here only briefly 
advert to these interesting facts.’’—Barrait. 
Dr. Barratt has long and attentively studied these two wil- 
lows, and I insert his descriptions at length. Both of the plants 
are found abundantly at Brookline and elsewhere, and answer 
to the descriptions which Dr. Barratt has given. I have, how- 
ever, always considered these two and the two preceding, as 
varieties of one willow, with some striking differences, certainly, 
but not greater than are found in what are universally admitted 
to be varieties of the apple, the pear, and the plumb trees. 
Grove Trirp. Tur Gravisp Wittows. Grisee. Borrer. 
Aments cylindrical, rather short, preceding the leaves, with 
two or three minute leaves at base ; stamens two, opening wsually 
first from the middle of the ament. Ovaries sessile or stalked, 
grayish silky. Leaves lanccolate, serrate, grayish silky beneath, 
turning black on drying. Shrubs with branches britile at base, 
and an intensely bitter bark.—Barratt. 
Sp.8 Tse Brirrre Gray Wittow. S. grisea. Willdenow. 
Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, serrulate, smooth, but downy on the mid-rib 
above ; silken or naked beneath; stipules linear, deflexed, deciduous; aments 
preceding the leaves; scales oblong, hairy, black at the apex; ovaries oblong 
or slightly tapering, on a short stalk, silky ; stigmas sessile, obtuse.—Pursh, 
II, 616. Wlld., Sp. pl., IV, 699. 
A shrub usually five or six feet high, sometimes a small tree 
twelve or fifteen feet high, growing in or near places wet or 
inundated the greater part of the year, usually much branched 
and abundantly set with leaves. ‘The female aments are very 
numerous, coming out just before the leaves, half an inch long, 
erect, on a short footstalk, which is invested with two or three 
linear leaves, of nearly the same length as the aments. Ovaries 
gradually tapering or ovoid, on a very short stalk, crowded. 
Smaller branches reddish green, or greenish, at last olive, tough, 
but very brittle near the base. Older ones ashy gray. Stem on 
