Nov., 1903.] Notes on Interesting Ohio Willows. i i 



NOTES ON INTERESTING OHIO WILLOWS. 



Robert F. Griggs. 



Among the willows there are, as is well known, very many 

 hybrids and freaks. These escape description in general works 

 because each has an individuality of its own and the treatment of 

 one is of suggestive value only for others. But to the student of 

 dynamic nature these forms are of the most extreme interest as 

 giving some clue to nature's methods of evolution. Likewise 

 they are of niterest to the sj-stematist in a negative way because 

 they stand in his wa}- and prevent the perfect classification of all 

 plants into genera and species which he aims to accomplish. This 

 general interest is the apolog}', if apology be needed, for report- 

 ing some of the forms of this sort that have come under observa- 

 tion. 



Salix interior var. WHEEI.ERI Rowlee. 



Since Prof. Rowlee' s publication not long ago of the variety 

 wheeleri of the common long leaved willow, there has been some 

 question as to its validity. Dr. Rydberg omitted it entirely from 

 his revision of the willows in Britton's Manual. These doubts 

 may be in a great measure due to lack of material of the variety 

 as, indeed, Prof. Rydberg intimated to me in a letter not long 

 since. Neither at Washington nor New York are there specimens 

 nor at the time of publication did Prof. Rowlee himself have 

 flowering material. Fortunately the plant grows abundantl}' on 

 Cedar Point, and in close proximity to the species, so that there 

 are exceptional opportunities for comparative study of the two. 



The two characters on which Prof. Rowlee named the variety 

 were the greater wooliness of the leaves and their relatively 

 greater breadth. All who know the long- leaved willow know how 

 very variable the leaves are, both in shape and pubescence. 

 Young leaves and those at the bases of secondary twigs are 

 broader than others, and when the}' first appear the}' are fre- 

 quentl}' densel}' covered with wool, though becoming entirely 

 glabrous. 



The hairiness does not seem to have much taxonomic signifi- 

 cance. Leaves on the same plant vary from one extreme to the 

 other. Narrow leaved plants are almost as likely to be woolh' as 

 broad leaved. Variation in hairiness is, so far as the writer can 

 observe, entirely unconnected with variations in other directions. 



But in the breadth of the leaves, the Cedar Point plants much 

 exceed the measurements given by Prof. Rowlee. Remaining 

 about the length he describes, the}' are frequently more than two 

 cm., or twice as broad. In its extreme development this broad 

 leaved form is almost glabrous, not at all hairy as are many of 



