PROSTRATE WILLOW. 
69 
many small leafy branches about 2 inches long, ex- 
clusive of the catkin or spike, which is itself about 
inches — in both sexes attenuated at the base; these 
branchlets as well as the leaves are whitish, with soft 
hairs, particularly the former, but still the green colour 
of the leaf predominates; the points of the leaves are 
somewhat rigid, sharply acute, and, unlike most other 
species, they are destitute of petioles or footstalks; the 
scales of the ament are oval and unusually conspicuous, 
more hairy in the staminiferous flower. The stamens 
are 2 to a scale. The capsule is pubescent and lanceo- 
late, at length nearly smooth. The stigmas 4, and 
rather long. No vestiges of stipules appear in any of 
our numerous specimens: the older branches are dark 
brown. 
It is difficult to decide on the affinities of this very 
distinct species, which at a little distance resembles a 
Protea or Leucodendron , the leaves being equally grey 
and silvery, with soft hairs, which are so equally distri- 
buted on either surface as to obliterate the presence of 
the veins, and render both surfaces almost similar. It 
appears, in some respects, to resemble S. arenaria , the 
Sand Willow, but the late appearance of the aments 
and their remarkable disproportion, are almost without 
a parallel. 
PROSTRATE WILLOW. 
SALIX brachycarpa, foliis ovatis lanceolatisve acvtis sub- 
sessilibus integerrimis cinereo-pubescentibus subtus incano- 
villosis, stipulis nullis, amentis coset aneis brevibus glomera- 
tis, capsulis ovatis abbreviate tomentosis, stigmatibus sub- 
sessilibus. 
This singular prostrate and dwarf Willow we met 
