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S A L I X fu sc a .
Brownish D warf 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 elliptic-oblong, acute, straight, flat,
with a few glandular teeth; glaucous and silky
beneath. Footstalks slender. Stem erect, much
branched. Stipulas none.
Syn. Salix fusca. , Linn. Sp. PL 144-7. FI. Lapp. ed.
2. 299. t. 8. f . r. Fl. Suec. ed. 2. 351. Sm. FI.
Brit. 1060. Galpine, 83.
N o t rare on moist mountainous heaths in the north, flowering
in May.
The stem forms an upright bushy shrub, about a foot high,
very much branched, not creeping, as far as we can observe
from cultivating it for many years, though Linnaeus says
otherwise. Branches round, downy when young, thickly
clothed with leaves. Buds large, ovate, red and shining.
Leaves on longish slender footstalks, always we believe without
stipulas,' scarcely an inch long, elliptic-oblong, sharpish,
almost perfectly flat and straight, not revolute, their margin
not cut nor serrated, but beset with distant glandular teeth,
most conspicuous in the older ones; dark green and smoothish
above; glaucous and silky, with minute veins, beneath. In
drying they turn black or brown. Catkihs ovate, short and
dense, with brown hairy obtuse scales. Anthers red before
they burst. Nectary ovate, brown. The scales of the female
catkins, sent for the same species by Dr. Stuart, "and described
in Fl. Brit., are so different as to cause a doubt of
their identity. We are certain of the distinctness of this
species, though, possibly, Linnaeus may have confounded
some others with it which we shall describe hereafter, and
which led him to describe the stem as creeping. We believe
moreover that S. repens, t. 183, is best distinguished from
fusca by its creeping stem, the leaves being not always entire.