360 AN AKRANGEMENT OF THE BRITISH WILLOWS. 



The si2;nifieation of some names is often very obscure; in other names 

 it is easy to be found, e. g., kntoe-ioemjkoel (pron. katootoongkool), tlie 

 name of a species of Polygala of the subgenus Chamcchiixm. Toeuylcod 

 signifies to Imn over; ka is the prefix for the passive form ; /oe a very 

 common reduplication. The whole name is derived from the fact that 

 the pericarp is leaning over the seeds ; the seeds are thus considered 

 passive, and the plant named after the seeds. I am persuaded that, by 

 a careful study of the Sundanese language and of the names of plants, it 

 will be easy to find other similar interpretations. 



I cannot agree with Mr. Motley, when he says that the Sundanese do 

 not possess a written language. They employ characters which are 

 nearly similar to the Javanese ones. Their literature is not very extended, 

 but they possess some manuscripts. 



It would be very desirable that a general manner of spelling were 

 adopted for all the vernacidar names ; for, as all the botanists have written 

 them after their own pronunciation, a comparison is hitlierto impossible. 

 To prove this assertion, I might cite the Malayan names, collected by 

 English and Dutch botanists. The importance of this remark is very 

 obvious in comparing the vernacular names of Palms, given by Griffith. 



AN ARRANGEME.VT OF THE BRITISH WILLOWS. 

 By the Rev. J. E. Leefe, M.A., E.L.S. 



Professor Babington was so obliging, a year or two ago, as to send me 

 a sketch of an arrangement of the British Willows, based upon the methotl 

 of Dumortier.* Duiuortier's writings I have not seen ; but Fries in his 

 Novit. Fl. Suec. Mantiss. prima, p. 37, anno 1882, refers to two ar- 

 rangements suggested by that botanist, of the former of which, taken 

 from the nectary, he says that it is " omni atteutione iligna." I may 

 remark that Koch, in his ' Commeiitatio de Salicibus Europaeis," anno 

 1828, did not fail to notice that characters are to be derived from the 

 nectary ; and constantly refers to the proportion between the pedicel and 

 the nectary in the different species, apparently knowing nothing of 

 Dumortier's observations ; and even Seringe, anno 1815, remarks that 

 " Les glandes Horales ou nectaires presentent aussi quelques caractcres." 

 Both Fries and Dumortier, it would seem, from Professor Babiuiiton's 

 paper, adopt pretty much the same subgenera. I hope an old-fashioned 

 observer of Wdlows may be pardoned for thinking that, in a natural 

 genus like Salix, it is inadvisable to distract the student's attention by 

 the introduction of new subgeneric names, if it can be avoided ; and es- 

 pecially of names which do not carry an obvious useful meaning on the 

 face of them, but are rather a burden upon the memory. 



With a view to contribute something, so far as I am able, towards 

 establishing clear and workable characters in this difficult genus, I wouhl 

 now beg to be permitted to make a few remarks on the sectional cha- 

 racters proposed by Mr. Babington in his interesting paper. 



Section 1. FUisalix, Dumort. Mr. Babington says, Catkins and their 

 leafy stalk deciduous together. Nectary of two pieces ; vernation convo- 

 lute. The peduncle (the leafy stalk) of the catkins in the Pentandrce, Fra- 



* Published iu this Joiu-iial, Vol. I. (18G3), pp. 167-172. 



