14 THE BRITISH WILLOWS 



to Derbyshire and Leicester. Central Europe, from France to 

 Russia, and Sweden. 



iii. Fragiles. 



3. Salix fragilis L. Sp. PI. 1017. Anderss. Monogr. 41, n. 28 ; 

 DC. Prodr. xvi (2), 209. Wimmer, Sal. Eur. 19. Syme, E. B. viii. 

 205. B. White, Revision, 368. Camus, Monogr. 76. Seemen, 

 i v . 70._ S. Busselliana Sm. Fl. Brit. 1045 ; Engl. Fl. iv. 186 ; in 

 Rees Cycl. 39. — S. fragilis var. Busselliana Babington, Man. 

 Brit. Bot. ed. 3, &c. 



Icon. E. B. t. 1808 {Busselliana). Forbes, Sal. Wob. t. 28. 

 Kew Bulletin No. 8 (1907), t. opp. p. 312. 



Exs. Hb. Linn. No. 91. Leefe, Sal. Brit. exs. Nos. 53-55. 

 Wimmer, Sal. Relict. (Coll. Sal. 9). Billot, No. 1955. Magnier, 

 Nos. 2829-2831. Leefe, Sal. exs. ii. 40. E. F. & W. R. Linton, 

 Nos. 2, 31, 76, 77. Toepffer, No. 25. 



A tree 30-80 ft. high, with rough bark, lax in habit, branches 

 spreading-ascending, forming a wide angle (60°-90°) with the 

 trunk ; twigs olive, sometimes pubescent at first, with shallow 

 grooves at the buds, sooner or later very fragile at the base ; buds 

 rather long, ovate-oblong, glabrescent. Stipules (usually absent) 

 ^-cordate-lanceolate, deciduous, scarce except on late or apoblastic 

 shoots. Leaf -blades 3-5 in. long by J— 1^ in. broad, narrowly or 

 broadly lanceolate, coarsely serrate, gradually and often obliquely 

 acuminate to a fine point, cuneate at the base, thinly silky at first, 

 soon glabrescent, bright green and shining above, paler and 

 usually glaucous beneath, reddish when young. Catkins coeval 

 with the leaves, narrowly cylindric, dense in flower, rather lax in 

 fruit ; peduncles pubescent upwards, leafy, their leaf-blades entire ; 

 bracts oblong-lanceolate or Ungulate, sub-obtuse, pale straw- 

 coloured, pubescent upwards, soon deciduous ; $ 1-2 in. long, base 

 of filaments hairy ; $ 1|-2| in. long in flower, -3 in. in fruit ; 

 ovaries \-\ in. long, lanceolate with ovoid base when fertilised, 

 commonly unfertilised and subulate, gradually tapering into a style 

 as long as or longer than the stigmas ; pedicels l|-3 times as long 

 as the quadrate nectaries. 



B. White (I. c. p. 368) defines the type as having the $ 

 catkins dense-flowered, with stamens conspicuously longer than 

 the bracts ; the 2 catkins with ovaries broader at the base, ovate- 

 lanceolate ; and describes var. britannica B. White as having lax- 

 flowered $ catkins with the stamens little longer than the bracts ; 

 ovaries lanceolate- subulate. 



There seems to be a difference in the $ catkins that amounts 

 to a varietal distinction. But in the ? catkins there is reason to 

 suspect that the narrow ovaries of var. britannica are unfertilised, 

 and that it is a barren state of the type. The leaves afford no 

 characters in either sex. 



8. fragilis is a lowland tree frequent by riversides, recorded 

 from nearly every English county and all but four of the Welsh ; 

 occurring through the greater part of Scotland, but doubtfully 

 indigenous beyond the Border ; absent from the northern counties, 



