226 HYBRIDITY IN SALIX, AND GROWTH OF WILLOWS FROM SEED. 



determiuationem varietatum et levium formarurn pro hybridis, qua laxa 

 specie! idea celata, indeque saepe ignorantise refugiura.' Thus it 

 appears that at the date of the ' Coutiuuatio Florse Suecicse,' 1832-1842, 

 Prof. Fries did not regard with favour the view that slight differences 

 between closel}' allied Willows are due to hybrid intermixture. This does 

 not, however, indicate what Prof. Fries' opinion is as to the growth of 

 Willows from seed. 



Turning now to another quarter, it is not a little remarkable how 

 positive in the affirmative was the language of the late Sir J. E, Smith, 

 first, that Willows do grow readily from seed; and secondly, that the 

 seedlings were always true to their kinds. Speaking of Mr. Crowe's 

 garden, Eng. Fl. vol. iv. p. 164, he says, "Seedlings innumerable 

 springing up all over the ground, were never destroyed till their species 

 were determined and the immutability of each verified by our joint in- 

 spection. This was the more material to set aside the gratuitous suppo- 

 sition of the mixture of species, or the production of new or hybrid ones, 

 of which, no more than of any change in established species, I have never 

 met with an instance." Such statements from such a quarter must demand 

 the utmost attention. Perhaps the seedlings, as they sprang up, were 

 removed to beds prepared for them, otherwise one cannot but be struck 

 by the practical difficulty of keeping the ground clear of weeds without 

 destroying the young plants. Two years' growth, at the very least, would 

 be required before the species of the seedlings could be determined, and 

 in that time, unless the seedlings were transplanted, which is not stated, 

 the Willow ground must have been in great danger of becoming a wilder- 

 ness. 



On the same subject, Reichenbach, Fl. Excursoria, p. 173, remarks 

 " absque dubio specierum enumeratarum quaedam hybridae." Wishing 

 to ascertain the opinions of competent persons, I have consulted some of 

 my friends who have bestowed much attention upon this tribe. The 

 Eev. L. Darwall, who has long cultivated Willows, observes, " Amongst 

 seedlings I have never found any but S. caprea and 5. aqiiatica (including, 

 perhaps, S. cinerea and S. oleifolia), though I have both sexes of many 

 other species. With this the opinion of my friend Mr. James Ward, 

 who has specially studied the Willows for a long series of years, substan- 

 tially coincides. Prof. Balfour tells me that they have tried, without 

 success, to raise willows from seed in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. 

 To come now to my own experience ; excepting S. cap-ea, I do not ever 

 remember to have met with a Willow where it looked like a seedling, and 

 this was in the shrubbery at Audley End, Essex, where the plant might 

 have been inserted as a cutting by some one of the gardeners. 1 have 

 myself cultivated the Willows somewhat extensively since the year 1838. 

 First in the nursery garden at Audley End for about five years, then in 

 the Rectory Gardens at Bishopwearmouth, in the county of Durham, for 

 say about four years, and for a year more in a garden in the neighbourhood 

 of the town of Sunderland, lastly, for fully twenty-one years at Cress- 

 well. For the last twenty-one years the plants, some of them now trees, 

 have been growing under my own eyes, great care being taken to keep 

 them properly labelled, which is no easy matter. In all that time I have 

 never seen a single seedling, though my collection comprises fully one 

 hundred forms. It is, T admit, barely possible that seedlings may have 

 sprung up, and been destroyed in keeping down weeds, but if so, I cannot 



