S A L I X p ro s tra ta .
Prostrate Dwarf Willow.
DIOECIA Diandria,
G en. Ch a r . Male, Cal. the scales of a catkin. Cor.
none. Nectary a gland at the base of the stamina.
Statn. 1— 5. Female, Cal. and Neel, like the male.
Cor. none. Stigmas 2. Caps, superior, of 1 cell
and 2 valves. Seeds downy.
Spec. Char. Leaves elliptical, acute, convex, rarely
toothed; glaucous, rugged and silky beneath. Stem
prostrate. Branches elongated, straight.
Syn. Salix prostrata. Sm. FI.' Brit. 1060. Galpine, 83.
S. polymorpha. Ehrh. Arb. 49 ? .
Mr. CROWE received this little Willow many years ago
from Mr. Dickson, who found it in Scotland. It has ever
since preserved its original habit in the garden. Mr. E. Forster
has gathered what we find to be the same on Epping Forest,
near High Beech, but neither Mr. Crowe nor any other person,
to our knowledge, has found it in Norfolk. It agrees
well with Ehrhart’s own specimens of his polymorpha, but he
seems to have confounded several species under that name. It
will not agree with the Linnaean characters of S. incubacea, a
species we have never been able to ascertain.
The stems form an entangled mat, most of the branches
being very long, tough, straight and slender, spreading very
widely, close to the ground, in all directions, while some few
short ones stand erect. All are leafy, round, finely downy
when «young. Leaves scattered, on shortish thick stalks,
elliptical or'elliptic-lanceolate, scarcely an inch long, acute,
somewhat recurved, mostly entire, but here and there furnished
with one or two conspicuous teeth; above dark and opaque,
minutely downy, veiny, convex; beneath concave, hardly
revolute, glaucous, rugged with veins, and somewhat silky.
Stipulas rare and small, or merely little glands. Sometimes
the scales of the axillary buds look like stipulas. Catkins
produced in May, not earlier, ovate, obtuse, dense,
silky. Scales with a blunt brown tip. Germeri ovate, silky,
somewhat stalked. Style short and thick. Stigmas cloven.