352 



DB. F. BUCHANAN WHITE S 





much is it a matter of opinion where the ovary ends and the style 



begins. 



In the specimens which I have seen I cannot say 



that 



the style is so long as one-third of the ovary, while it is not very 

 markedly different in length from the stigmas, being sometimes a 

 little longer and sometimes a little shorter than these. In typical 

 specimens the ovary, which is smaller than in Salixfragilis, with 

 shorter style and stigmas, is ovate, tapering, but rather blunt 

 (*. e. as it ripens, contracted into the style), with a rather stout 

 style (often bifid) and rather broad spreading or recurved cloven 

 stigmas. The pedicel is about twice the length of the inner 

 nectary, the outer nectary being very small and obscure. In both 

 sexes the scales are variable, but are perhaps, on the whole, less 

 hairy than in frag His, and more hairy than in triandra. 



Though for the above comparative description typical (*• *• 

 intermediate) specimens have been selected, it must be kept 

 in mind that many examples diverge either in the direction of 

 fragilis or of triandra, the variation being chiefly noticeable in 

 the leaves. Thus the leaves may be distinctly glaucous below, 

 more distinctly and persistently silky when young, and more 

 fragilis-like in shape ; the bark, especially of the flowering twigs, 

 may be darker in colour than usual ; and the pedicel of the ovary 

 may be three or four times as long as the nectary. 

 ~ Compared with S. triandra,the more polished bark of the year- 

 old twigs, the narrower more acute stipules (when these are 

 present), the diandrous flowers, and the usually shorter pedicel 

 and more distinct style will generally distinguish the plant ; but, 

 from the leaves alone, I would sometimes hesitate before affirming 

 positively whether certain specimens belonged to decipiens or to 

 triandra. 



I have described the British decipiens at this great length 

 because it has, almost unanimously, been referred to 8. fragile* 

 and considered not, or scarcely, worthy of the rank even of a 

 variety. That it might really be of hybrid origin seems not to 

 have occurred to any botanist *, though several supposed hybrids 



* Mr. M. S. Bebb, the American salicologist, remarks in a letter to me :— * 

 have always believed that it [i. e. 8. decipiens] was a hybrid; but this was as far 

 as I got ! With the living plant of triandra I am not acquainted. It will not 

 stand the hot sun of our midsummer months, and can barely be coaxed into a sic J 

 bush, a few feet in height, crowded with dead twigs. S. fragilis, on the other ban i 

 in all its forms, fairly luxuriates in our pseudo-Asiatic climate. Now dtcip* 1 *' 

 sent to me by my dear old friend the Rev. J. E. Leefe as the direct descendant o 

 the plant ot Smith, exhibited, as I now remember (though the fact had for me no 

 significance at the time), a compromise, as it were, between the vigour otfi 

 and the arrest of growth in midsummer so marked in the case of triandra 







* 





























■ 



■ 









■ 



















1 

































. 

















«fc 



