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VI H. Remarks on form Bnii/l.-> Species of Safix. By James Edward 

 Smith, M,D. KR.S. P.LX 



Read May 5, 1801. 



IT has for a Ions; time been my intenMon to offer to the confidera- 

 tion of the Linnean Society fome elucidation of the Britilh VViHows ; 

 but there are many reafons why any thing hke a complete h ory of 

 of the genus of Salix cannot at preient be made ou% even fo far as 

 regards our native fpecies, and 1 have therefore withheld the par'"ial 

 information I had acquired, in hopes of learning more, and being 

 able to communicate fomethiug better worth the Society's accept- 

 ance. 



At length however It becomes neceHary that this obfcure genus 

 ihould affume as regular a form as poffibJe in the Flora B itannica ; 

 where, as in every other inllance, my obje6l is to publiih nothing 

 that I have not afcertained myfelf, at leaftas far as the imperfe6lion 

 of all human knowledge and judgment will permit. The enumera- 

 tion therefore of the fpecies of 5"^//.^ in that book, though more 

 comprehenfive than any yet publiOied in Britain, will be but an 

 eflay, to be perfe£fed hereafter; and what I have to offer in this 

 paper are various matters colle6led in the courfe of my inquiries, 

 which require a more diffufe explanation than the fyftematic form 

 of the work juft mentioned will admit. 1 fhall at prefent confine 

 itiy obfervations to the arborefccntl pedes of the firfl fe6tion of the 

 genus Salix, which comprehends fuch as have leaves more or lefs 

 f,rrated, ami nearly imooth, atleail: when fully formed. This is the 



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