12 THE BRITISH WILLOWS 



folia, and f. microphylla under it ; the second pair by the breadth 

 of the catkins and density of the flowers. 



S. amygdalina L., hazy in its origin, was regarded by Smith 

 as a distinct species (E. B. t. 1936 ; Engl. Fl. iv. 169) ; but his 

 description and plate show only a form of S. triandra with a more 

 rounded leaf-base than usual, not worth distinguishing as a 

 variety. S. contorta Crowe (see Engl. Fl. iv. 167) was a $ plant 

 cultivated in Sussex, a small-leaved S. triandra form, said to be 

 introduced and of French origin. 



Sllbsp. HOFFMANNIANA (Sm.). 



Syn. S. Hoffmanniana Sm. Engl. Fl. iv. 168. E. B. S. 

 No. 2620. Leefe m Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, i. 159 (1844). 



Icon. Hoffm. Hist. Sal. tt. ix. x. Forbes, Sal. Wob. 16. 



Exs. Hb. Smith, " S. triandra ? a shrub of more humble 

 growth, &c. Mr. Borrer, 1825." E. F. & W. R. Linton, No. 27. 



A small bush or dwarf tree, 5-13 ft. high, with bark flaking off, 

 as in S. triandra L., with dense interlacing branches in trees of 

 some age, forming a compact rounded head ; twigs slender, terete 

 or subterete, somewhat fragile at the base. Stipules foliaceous, 

 prominent, rounded. Leaf-blades 1|-2| in. long, ovate-oblong 

 acuminate, of a light or yellowish green, green not glaucous 

 beneath, + rounded at the base, rather crowded, nowhere 

 parallel-sided. 



Catkins f-l| in. long, fl. May ; $ frequent in Britain, smaller 

 and more slender, and a week or two later in flowering than 

 8. triandra ; bracts usually more pubescent within and without, 

 as Hoffmann represents them (/. c. t. ix.). ::: In E. B. tab. the 

 bracts are drawn with this character reversed, and the bracts of 

 S. triandra the more hairy of the two, which does not agree with 

 Smith's views, who found "no remarkable difference in the catkins 

 of either sort " (Engl. Fl. iv. 168). 



This form is placed as a subspecies, being much more distinct 

 from S. triandra than most so-called varieties of willows, which 

 differ from their species in the shape of the leaf or the size of the 

 catkin. The $ plant is frequent in the South and S.E. England ; 

 the $ is known to me only from the neighbourhood of Walmer, 

 Kent, and by specimens in Kew Herbarium (Hb. Bromfield) from 

 a brookside not far from Shanklin Church, Isle of Wight, 1840. 



S. triandra is found by streams and in wet ground as a low- 

 land willow in nearly every English county, and in the most 

 northern and most southern Welsh counties. It is recorded from 

 half a dozen Scotch counties ; usually planted in all its localities 

 in the British Isles, owing to its utility as an osier. It is, how- 

 ever, undoubtedly self-sown at times, and probably native in S.E. 

 and Central England. In Ireland it may be native in four S.E. 

 counties ; elsewhere it is scarce and introduced. It is in great 

 request as an osier for basketwork, &c, and growers distinguish 

 many varieties. In the Elmore osier plantation at Thurmaston, 



Female catkins, very rare, scarcely differ from those of 8. triandra, unless 

 in the pubescence of the bracts. 



