THE BRITISH WILLOWS 



By the Rev. E. F. LINTON, M.A. 



Introductory. 



The serious study of Willows in this country began with Sir 

 J. E. Smith, who had laboured at working out the species for 

 "full thirty years " before the date of his English Flora (1828), 

 observing their growth in the garden of James Crowe at Norwich, 

 who grew them in large numbers. Smith, however, overshot the 

 mark in the multiplication of species through disbelieving in the 

 existence of hybrids, and making species of many forms that were 

 of hybrid origin, and many more that have proved to be but slight 

 varieties, thus expanding our list to the number of sixty-four British 

 species. This list was much condensed by Lindley, Babington, 

 and Boswell Syme, but no thorough revision was made affecting 

 Lst till N. J. Andersson had published his Monographic/, 

 Salicum (1867), of which only part i. was issued, and his complete 

 a*" rant of the genus Salix in De Candolle's Prodromus (1868), 

 His views were adopted and closely followed by Sir J. D. Hooker 

 in the third edition of the Student's Flora of the British Isles 

 (1884), with a reduction of the number of species to eighteen, and 

 were reproduced more fully by F. B. White in his " Revision of 

 the British Willows " (Journ. Linn. Soc. xxvii. 1890), who added 

 some new hybrids to those already known, and further reduced 

 the number of British species to seventeen by combining, as 

 Linnaeus had originally done, S. phylicifolia and S. nigricans. 



For a detailed account of the various parts of the Willow and 

 their development, Wimmer's Salices Eicropcece, pp. xxiv.-xliv., 

 should be consulted ; also the Classification chs Saules cV Europe, 

 by A. & E.-G. Camus, pp. 11-14, and for the internal morphology, 

 pp. 14-40. 



Salix is a difficult genus to study ; partly because the floral 

 organs and foliage have to be collected at different seasons, and 

 partly because there is development and change of character in 

 both flowers and leaves during the season of growth. The twigs, 

 buds, and leaves of most of the species are more or less clothed 

 with pubescence at first, and, while this pubescence is persistent 

 in a few species, it is evanescent in more, disappearing very 

 rapidly in some, and more gradually in others. The female cat- 



Journal of Botany, April, 1913. [Supplement.] b 



