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378 



DR. F. BUCHANAN WHITE S 





often imperfect specimens. Such examples it is often impossible 



to place. 



Whilst the older British botanists, Smith and his followers, 

 thought that there were in Britain five species— the three men- 

 tioned, with the addition of Salix aquatica, Sm., and S. oleifolia, 



Sm.— the author of the latest British Flora('The Student's Flora') 

 has, on account of some remarks of Andersson, reduced S. cinerea 

 to the rank of a subspecies of S. Caprea, and suggests that S. 

 aurita is probably only another form. But, though in continental 

 Europe S. cinerea is not rarely, as Andei ssou says, to be distin- 

 guished without difficulty from some forms of S. Caprea, in Britain 

 this does not seem to be usually the case, since our common form 

 of S. cinerea is much more closely related to S. aurita than to 

 S. Caprea. 



From the intimate alliance between these three species, and as 

 they flower much about the same time, they, as might be expected,^ 

 readily cross with each other, and to identify the parentage ot 

 the three hybrids thus produced is often most difficult. 











5. Salix cinerea, L. 



If a series of Continental examples of S. cinerea be compared 

 with a series of British specimens, it will be seen that, though, 

 perhaps, some of the examples may be tolerably similar, there is, 

 on the whole, an absence of exact identity between the series. 

 Moreover, if the descriptions of the species by the Continental 

 snlicologists be studied, it will be found that they do not, in some 

 particulars, quite fit the British plant. That this appears to be 

 a matter of some importance may be assumed if we consider that 

 several species, of more or less restricted distribution, have arisen 

 either from S. cinerea, or from its possible progenitor S. Caprea, 

 or from the same stock. 



Thus, peculiar to alpine and subalpine (especially limestone) 

 regions from France to Transylvania there is S. grandifolia, Ser., 

 a species which has been confounded with S. Caprea and S. cinerea, 

 and has even been supposed to be an alpine modification of the 

 latter. North of the range of this species, and chiefly in alpi» e 

 and mountainous districts of Silesia, occurs S. silesiaca, W., a 

 species which has very great affinity and similitude to S. cinerea, 

 S. Caprea, and S. aurita. Of this a subspecies is found in the 

 Caucasus. In the Mediterranean region occurs S. pedicellate, 







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