The Dwarf Silky Willow (_Salix repens_--order _Salicaceæ_) is very common on heaths. It is a small, straggling shrub, from one to three feet high, sometimes erect, but more commonly procumbent and rooting at the base, with slender branches. Its leaves are often less than an inch in length, oblong or narrow, with recurved margins, shining above and silky below. When young, the leaves are silky on both sides; and the young twigs and the buds are also clothed with a silky down. The flowers are imperfect, and are in short, sessile, erect, oblong catkins, which appear in April and early May, before the leaves. The male and female flowers grow on different shrubs; but in both cases the catkins are about half an inch long, with a few leafy bracts at the base, and the flowers are intermixed with silky scales. The capsules split when ripe, liberating numerous minute seeds that are tufted with long, white, silky hairs. The Juniper (_Juniperus communis_), one of the few British conifers, is not uncommon on dry, gravelly or chalky downs, more especially in the North. It is a profusely-branched, evergreen shrub, either erect or procumbent, and usually from one to five feet high. Its leaves are very narrow, half an inch or less in length, concave above, terminating in a very sharp point, and arranged three in a whorl. The male and female flowers grow on separate shrubs, and are clustered in minute catkins, about a twelfth of an inch long, sessile in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a bluish-black, berrylike cone, about a third of an inch in diameter. The Juniper flowers during May and June. [Illustration: THE BUTCHER'S BROOM, IN FRUIT.] Passing now to the _Orchidaceæ_ we have to note two species, the first of which is the Autumnal Lady's Tresses (_Spiranthes autumnalis_), a moderately common plant on the dry downs of South Britain, flowering from August to October. It has two or three thick, oval tubers; and a slender stem, from four to eight inches high, with sheathing, acute scales. The radical leaves, four or five in number, are about an inch long, ovate, sharp, and form a tuft by the side of the stem. The flowers are small, white, scented, and form a single, spiral line on the stem; but while each flower is turned to one side, its bract is erect on the other side of the stem. The sepals and petals are much alike. The upper sepals are joined to the petals, and the lateral ones curve over the base of the lip of the corolla.