THE BRITISH WILLOWS 23 



About S. Helix L. there has always been some doubt. Accord- 

 ing to Fries & Koch (Fl. Germ, et Helv. ed. 2, p. 744) it was a form 

 of S. purpurea, Wimmer, thinking Linnaeus could not have 

 described such a well-marked willow as S. purpurea under two 

 names, makes S. Helix a synonym of his S. viminalis-purpurea 

 (Sal. Eur. pp. 33, 173). Each of these lines has been followed in 

 different Floras, Syme {I. c. p. 221) placing-/ Helix under S. rubra, 

 while Andersson (I. c. p. 307) and Babington (Man. ed. 9, p. 79) 

 place S. Helix (L.) as a variety under S. purpurea. The confusion 

 is reflected very commonly in British herbaria. The name 8. 

 Helix therefore disappears, as an ambiguity, S. rubra Huds. 

 being generally accepted as the name for the hybrid S. purpurea 

 X viminalis. 



S. purpurea is a useful osier for the finer sorts of basket- 

 work, &c, and several varieties are grown in the Thurmaston osier 

 fields. The bitterness of the bark to some extent protects it 

 against rodents. While often planted in marshy holts and hedges, 

 it is generally distributed, and native through the eastern and 

 central parts of Great Britain, from the South Coast northwards 

 to Aberdeenshire ; and is reputed native in many parts of Ireland, 

 where it occurs rather generally, but as introduced into the 

 northern and south-western counties. Through Central Europe 

 in its widest sense ; and through Central Asia from Asia Minor to 

 Japan. N. Africa ; N. America (planted). 



S. purpurea x aurita (p. 23). 



X aurita x cinerea (p. 24). 



X aurita x phylicifolia (p. 24). 



x cinerea (p. 25). 



X phylicifolia (p. 26). 



X repens (p. 26). 



X viminalis (p. 27). 



SALIX AURITA X PURPUREA. 



Syn. S. aurita-purpurea Wimmer, Fl. Schles. 2 Aufl. Nachtr. 

 (1845) 478 ; Sal. Eur. 165.— S. dichroa Doll. 511. B. White, 

 Eevision, 452. — S. Pontederana 8 dichroa Anderss. DC. Prodr. xvi. 

 (2), 312. — S. aurita x purpurea Camus, Monogr. 283. Seemen, 

 iv. 299. 



Icon. Camus, Atlas t. 27, fig. a-j. 



Exs. Kerner exs. Austr. Hung. 1467, Hb. (Esterr. Weiden, 

 No. 22. Wimmer, Sal. Eelict. (Herb. Sal. 61 ; Coll. Sal. 151c, 

 152, 153, 155). Leefe, Sal. exs. iii. 59. Hb. B. White, Nos. 207, 

 408, 409. Toepffer, Sal. exs. Nos. 10, 55, 113. 



A much branched shrub, 3-6 ft. high, with straight slender 

 shoots, + pubescent at first, soon glabrous, dark purplish brown. 

 Buds glabrescent. Stipules |-cordate- or |-broadly-ovate- 

 acuminate. Leaf-blades small, oblong-lanceolate or obovate- 

 oblong acute, narrowed below, hardly rugose, dentate in the 

 upper half, pubescent at first, soon glabrescent, + glaucous with 

 nerves prominent beneath, usually blackening somewhat. Catkins 

 about 1 in. long, preceding the leaves in April, dense-flowered ; 



