66 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



(No. 40) on the banks of the Nith below Sanquhar. Unfor- 

 tunately (in some respects) the flowers are hermaphrodite, the 

 upper part of the catkins being 6 and the lower $ . Yet 

 although it is thus a monstrosity, of a kind which is not un- 

 common amongst willows, it deserves special notice, as it 

 seems to be a ternary hybrid, the result of the crossing of 

 S. purpurea, S. phylicifolia, and .S. aurita. Whether the binary 

 hybrid (i.e. the plant of the first hybridization) was the above 

 mentioned 5. secemeta (S. purpurea x >S. pJiylicifolia), or vS. 

 ludiftcans (S. aurita X vS. phylicifolia) or 6". dicJiroa (S. pur- 

 purea x wS. aurita) it is of course impossible to say, although, 

 if I am correct in my assumption of the parentage of the plant, 

 it must have been one of them. It may be thus described — 

 X Salix sesquitertia nov. hybr. (S. purpurea X aurita x phylici- 

 folia). Twigs and shoots like those of S . phylicifolia. Leaves 

 (largest 2\ by about 1 inch) oblong obovate, very shortly 

 pointed or plicate-pointed ; margins crenate-serrate, slightly 

 incurved below ; glaucous below with veins more or less 

 raised, the youngest leaves showing the rugosity more dis- 

 tinctly ; the younger leaves more or less subpubescent below, 

 the pubescence somewhat crisped but often shining, old leaves 

 nearly or quite glabrous. Stipules (rarely present) small, 

 reniform. Catkins moderate (|- inch long), dense-flowered, 

 subsessile or very shortly peduncled, peduncles with 2 or 3 

 very small leaves ; catkins mostly ? , but with a variable 

 number of 6 flowers at the apex. Scales spathulate, rounded 

 at the apex, clothed with numerous long white hairs, reddish 

 brown at the base, upper half black, those at the apex of the 

 catkins often somewhat subcoriaceous and concave ; ovary 

 conical, subobtuse, densely clothed with white pubescence, as 

 is the pedicel, which is about twice as long as the nectary ; 

 style about as long as the moderate-sized stigma ; stigma- 

 lobes erect-patent, rather broad, mostly undivided but some- 

 times notched or bifid ; filaments of the stamens connate as 

 far as the anthers, which are four-celled ; empty anthers show- 

 ing a tendency to become subfuscous. Occasionally some of 

 the anthers at the point in the catkins where c£ and ? flowers 

 intermingle are beginning to change into ovaries. 



The purpurea element in this curious plant is indicated 

 by the monandrous 3 flowers, and in a less degree by the 



