LXXXV. SALICACEA5. 
411 
Sdlix."] 
its stigmas are at length bifid. S', bicn’or Ehrh. (S. tenuifolia E. B. 
t. 21 86, figure only, and S. floribunda Sal. Wob. t 54) appears to 
belong to this species, but the fertile plant alone is known with cer- 
tainty. 
xiii. Stamens 2, distinct. Anthers yellow or brown when empty. 
Ovaries oblong or ovate, densely pubescent, nearly sessile; stalk when 
present muck shorter than the nectary. Style as long as the ovate 
emarginate or cloven obtuse stigmas. Catkins appearing along with the 
leaves, terminal on short few-leaved lateral shoots, at first very compact ; 
scales of a uniform yellowish-brown colour when dried, half as long as 
the ovary, hairy. Leaves more or less veiny above ; stipules none or 
minute. Small erect or diffuse rarely prostrate shrubs : stems above 
ground. Vacciniifolice Borr. 
33. S. Arbuscula L.: Wahl. ( small Tree JV.); leaves lanceo- 
late-ovate or ovate finely serrate. S. Myrsinites Light/. — a. 
leaves opaque above glaucous beneath. S. vacciniifolia Walk.; 
E. B. t. 2341 (leaves flat smaller narrower and less prominently 
veined above). S. venulosa Sm.: E. B. t. 1362. (leaves flat 
narrow-ovate very much veined above). S. carinata Sm. : E. B. 
t. 1363 (leaves ovate folded so as to form a keel). S. pruni- 
folia Sm.: E. B. t. 1361 (leaves broadly ovate flat). — /3. leaves 
(broadly or roundish ovate prominently veined above) green but 
scarcely shining on both sides. 
a. Highland mountains, not unfrequent. — /8. Ben Lawers. Tj . 
6,7. — “Twigs of the fertile plant red, of the sterile dull green.” 
Lightf. All these are, we believe, decumbent shrubs on their native 
mountains, but when cultivated, they become more erect and about 
2 feet high. As a species this is closely allied to S. prostrata Ehrh., 
which however has narrow entire leaves. We cannot satisfactorily 
distinguish Smith’s four species. Our var. ft. we never met with but 
once, and long hesitated whether to refer it to the present or to the 
next group : it is indeed precisely intermediate, and may perhaps be 
a hybrid between some of the forms of S. Arbuscula and S. Myrsinites : 
the leaves are not glaucous beneath, and the catkins are shorter and 
more lax than in this group ; but the ovaries are almost sessile, and 
the colour of the scales and the numerous lateral flower-shoots indi- 
cate its greater affinity to S'. Arbuscula : in some respects it is very 
closely allied to S. ovata Ser., but wants the silky hairs so abundant on 
the young leaves of that species. Mr. Bentham remarks of the above 
that they appear to him “ to be either varieties of S. Myrsinites of 
rather larger growth with short peduncles to the catkins, and the 
leaves rather glaucous beneath ; or perhaps in some instances small- 
leaved varieties of S. phylicifolia." If Mr. Bentham be correct, he 
ought to have united all of these, for the characters of S. arbuscula 
are partly those of the one, partly those of the other. 
xiv. Stamens 2, distinct. Anthers yellow or brown when empty. Ovaries 
lanceolate, silky, stalked ; stalks usually as long as, or at length longer 
than, the gland. Style more or less deeply bifd, as long as the cloven 
T 2 
