CHAP. CIII.

SALICA'CEJE. .S’A'LIX.

1591

Smith,

Host Sal. Austr. : in Eng . Hot., the female, in fruit and flower!; and bractea (scale) of the male.

Both sexes were living, in 1836, in the Twickenham Botanic Garden.

Engravings. Hayne Abbild., t. 175.; Eng . Bol., t. 1907.; Sal. Wob., No. 62. ; and Host Sal.

Austr., 1.1.101.; oar Jig. 1349.; and fig. 62. in p. 1615.

Spec. Char., §c. Leaves orbicular, _ serrated, reticulated with veins; veryglabrous and shining on both sides. Ovary stalked, ovate-lanceolate,glabrous. ( Smith Eng. El.) A native of Britain , on the W elsh and High-land mountains ; flowering there in June, but, in thewillow garden at Woburn Abbey , before the expansionof the leaves. It is a native, also, of various parts of '

Europe; also, according to Pursh, of North America .

In the Companion to the Botanical Magazine, it isstated that S. herbacea exceeds in the elevation of ,its habitat every other shrub in Britain (p. 89.); andthat ‘few hills of 800 or 900 yards in Britain arewithout S. herbacea, whilst S. reticulata is probablylimited to the Scottish Highlands , and not veryplentiful there.” (p. 222.) S. herbacea is the leastof British willows, and, according to Sir J. E.all shrubs. Dr. Clarke, in his Scandinavia , calls it a perfect tree inminiature; so small, that it may be taken up, and root, trunk, andbranches spread out in a small pocket-book. According to Hooker ( Br,FI., ed. 2.), it is not “ so small as is generally supposed, for its stems divideand creep below the surface of the earth, scarcely rising 1 in. above it.” Ined. 3., it is stated, on the authority of Dr. Graham, that “ in the Bo-tanic Garden of Edinburgh it has acquired a prostrate woody stem, 2 ft. to3 ft. long, and as thick as the little finger.” Under the head Varieties,we have noticed some plants which may belong to this species, and■which have stems 2 ft. or 3 ft. high. The leaves of S. herbacea are em-ployed, in Iceland , in the tanning of leather. ( Lindl. Nat. Syst. Bot.) S.herbacea is called by the Laplanders the ptarmigan leaf. ( Wahlenberg ,quoted in Eng. FI.) In Switzerland , M. Alphonse De Candolle observes,“ some species of willow ( S. retusa, herbacea, and reticulata) spread overthe uneven surface of the soil; and, as their branches are often covered withthe earth, which the heavy rains wash over them, they present the singularphenomenon of trees which are more or less subterranean. The ex-tremities of these branches form, sometimes, a kind of turf; and the as-tonished traveller finds himself, as we may say, walking on the top of atree. The iSalix herbacea is the species that most frequently presents thisremarkable appearance, because it generally grows on steep slopes of loosesoil, particularly among the fragments of schistus, that are easily penetratedby the melting snow and the rain.” ( Gard. Mag., xii. p. 235.) There areplants at Henfield.

? Varieties. “ A very remarkable kind of willow, from Sutherland, which hasall the characters of S. herbacea, except that it grows 2 ft. high, has beensent to me by Dr. Graham, and is now alive in my garden.” ( Borrer in aletter.} An unusually large variety was found by Mr. Templeton on thetop of Slieve-Nance, in the county of Antrim, Ireland , similar to someol the large varieties gathered by Mr. M‘Nab of Edinburgh on the moun-tains of Sutherland. Mr. Moore lately sent Mr. Mackay very luxuriantspecimens from Dark Mountain, in the county of Derry, Ireland . (FI.Hibem., pt. 1. p. 253.)

st 162. S. pola'ris Wahlenb. The Polar Willow.

^Woi^N^k; Suec., p. 636.; FI. Lapp., p. 261.; Koch Comm., p. 64.; Forbes in Sal.

The Sexes. The female is described and figured in Sal. Wob.mp”®' Wahl - Fl La PP-> 1.13. f. 1.; Sal. Wob., No. 63.; our Jigs. 1350. and 1351. ; and Jig. 63.

^P ec -Char., fy c . Leaves ovate, very obtuse, nearly entire, glabrous. Catkinsot tew flowers. Stem filiform, or thread-shaped. (Wahlenberg F. L.) A