/ ö S [ 1366 ]
S A L I X A rb u s c u la .
Little Tree Willow.
DIOECIA Diandria.
Gen. 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, very obscurely toothed,
smooth, mostly without stipulae. Branches downy.
Catkins ovate, erect.
Syn. Salix Arbuscula. Linn. FI. Lapp. ed. 2. 297.
t. 8./. m. Sp. PI. 1445, y. Sm. FI. Brit. 1050.
G a t h e r e d by Mr. Dickson in the highlands of Scotland.
We have carefully compared it with Linnaeus’s Lap-
land specimen, the original species, though made a variety in
Sp. PL, and find no difference between them. It flowers in
April.
The stem is erect, slender, about a foot high, naked below
like a little tree, the branches spreading and downy. Leaves
on very short stalks, moderately spreading, lanceolate, but
liable to vary greatly in breadth, flat, finely veined, at first
sight apparently entire, but on accurate inspection they will be
found obsoletely toothed, as Linnaeus rightly asserted in FI.
Lapp. When young they are silky, but when full grown
quite smooth above, and nearly so below. Their colour is
rather a light green. Of stipulae no vestiges are to be found,
except sometimes on extremely luxuriant radical shoots, where
they are small lanceolate and flat. On such shoots the leaves
become quite ovate and very broad; see figure. Catkins
lateral, nearly sessile, erect, ovate, short. Scales oblong,
notched, purplish, hairy. Germen silky, ovato-lanceolate,
on a short stalk. Stigmas broad, ovate, tawnv, with a very
short style.
In natural affinity this comes near to the last, but on account
of its smooth leaves Linnaeus has placed them far
asunder.
FI. Dan. t. 1055 must be a different species from our
plant.