77 
MINUTE WILLOW. 
SALIX nivalis, folds ovalibus subspat hulatis integerrimis 
glabris obtusis , subtus concoloribus reticulatis , amentis 
serotinis pedicellalis paucifloris , germinihus ovatis sericeis 
squamse glabrse retusse longioribus , stigmatibus subses- 
silibus. 
Salix nivalis . Hooker, Flor. Bor. Am., vol. 2. p. 
This elegant and very diminutive shrub, merely 
about 2 inches high, was obtained in the same alpine 
ravine as the former, but on a plain elevated to the very 
line of perpetual snow, at the height of about 10,000 
feet above the ocean level. The stems are smooth, 
brown and woody, sending out very few short branches 
terminated by scanty tufts of smooth coriaceous leaves, 
2 to 3 lines wide and about 4 lines long. ThQ male 
plant we have not seen; the female catkin is produced 
upon a pubescent pedicel nearly its length, the flowers 
are about 6, sessile, and the subtending scales smooth, 
retuse and nerved. The germ is short ovate, and 
silky, terminated by a sessile or almost sessile quadrifid 
stigma. 
This species is allied to the Salix myrtilloides , but at 
the same time perfectly distinct. 
Plate XIX. 
A fertile plant of the natural magnitude, a. A leaf. b. The 
young capsule and its scale. 
