1909] Forbes,— Salix subsericea a distinct Species 11 
a, subsericea,' which was collected in May, 1847, at Fresh Pond by the 
late George B. Emerson. Andersson treated S. petiolaris as an ag- 
gregate species with five chief components, among them S. petiolaris, 
e, sericea (S. sericea Marsh.). The young branch of the Fresh Pond 
shrub was described as follows: 
“a, subsericea, foliis initio sat dense sericeo-pubescentibus demum 
subglabratis pilis raris subtus derelictis anguste lanceolatis margine 
crenulatis, amentis subdensifloris, capsulis brevius pedicellatis ob- 
tusiusculis. (S. sericea Hb. Asa Gray e Massachusetts). Haec 
quum habitu tum notis S. sericeae maxime affinis, a qua vix differt 
nisi amentis magis laxifloris, capsulis longioribus et folis demum 
subtus subglabratis." ? 
Further search of literature shows that in 1901, Dr. Rydberg, 
without any apparent knowledge either of Andersson's description or 
the very accessible type from Massachusetts, made the combination 
“Salix sericea subsericea (Anders.) Rydb.,"? citing definitely as a 
synonym “$. petiolaris subsericea Anders.," for a plant with “capsule 
smaller"! and said to grow from New York to Michigan; although a 
mere reference to Andersson's original description would have shown 
that S. petiolaris, a, subsericea was clearly stated by Andersson to have 
the capsules longer (**capsulis longioribus") than in S. sericea and to 
come from Massachusetts. 
The latest mention of the plant found is by Schneider in 1904, when 
he treated it as a hybrid of Salix sericea and S. petiolaris: 
“S. sericea X petiolaris: S. subsericea (petiolaris var. subsericea 
Anderss., in DC., l. c. 234; sericea var. subsericea Rydbg., in Britt. 
Manual 318. 1901). Scheint unter den beiden Elternnamen in 
Kultur und halt nach meinen Beobachtungen zieml. genau die Mitte 
zwischen diesen." * 
The writer ventures to say that if Andersson had had the material 
now available he would have considered this willow a good species. 
It certainly resembles S. petiolaris more than it does S. sericea; but, 
as its characters are essentially constant wherever the shrub has been 
found and as it is quite fertile and without the tendencies we have 
learned to expect in hybrid willows, there seems to be no reason why 
1 Anders. in ОС, Prodr. xvi. pt. 2, 234 (1864). 
2 Anders, l. c. 
3 Rydberg in Britton, Man. 318 (1901). 
4 Schneider, Handbuch der Laubholzkunde, pt. 1, 65 (1904). 
