SALIX decipiens.
White Welch, or Varnished, Willow,
DIOECIA Diandria.
G en. Char. Male, Cal. the scales of a catkin. Cor.
none. Nectary a gland at the base of the stamina.
Stam. 1— 5. Female, Cal. and Nect. like the male.
Cor. none. Stigmas 2. Caps, superior, of 1 cell
and 2 valves. Seeds downy.
Spec. Char. Leaves lanceolate, serrated, very smooth.
Footstalks somewhat glandular. Germen tapering,
stalked. Floral leaves dilated and bluntish. Branches
smooth and highly polished.
Syn. Salix decipiens. Hoffm. Sal. v. 2. 9. t. 31. FI.
Germ. v. 1. 343. Winch Guide, v. 1. 90.
OBSERVED wild by Mr. T. F. Forster near Tunbridge; in
Northumberland and Durham by Mr. W inch; by Mr.Woolgar
in many moist hedges round Lewes, and by the late Mr. Crowe
in a cultivated state, by the name of White Welch Osier, in
several osier grounds in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. Mr.
Woolgar says “ it produces good rods for basket-work, but
in a few years, about Lewes at least, the shoots are so short as
not to be worth cultivating/'
This forms a small tree of handsome growth, flowering
in May. It is readily known by the very smooth shining
bark of its last-year’s shoots, which is of a light reddish
brown, or clay-colour, appearing as if varnished. The young
twigs are often stained beautifully with crimson. Leaves very
much akin to those of S. Russelliana, t. 1808, but mostly
smaller; and those borne on the short Aowefing branches of
S. decipiens are remarkably different from Russelliana, being
obtuse, nearly obovate, and recurved, except only the upper
one. Stamens 2, very rarely 3. Nectary in the male double.
Germen stalked, tapering, smooth. Scales all elliptic-oblong,
hairy.
Decipiens is but a bad name, and Hoffmann’s account,
though very correct, incomplete. Roth merely copies it in
his FI. Germ. v. 2. p. 2. 306. We have compared authentic
specimens.
7 Q ‘X/7