THE BRITISH WILLOWS 25 



SALIX CINEREA X PURPUREA. 



Sijn. S. cinerea-purpurea Wimmer, Fl. Schles. 2 Nachtr. 477 

 (1845) ; Sal. Eur. 162.— S. Pontederana Schleicher, Cat. PL Helv. 

 (1800) ; Doll. Fl. Baden, 510. — S. sordida Kerner, Niederoestr. 

 Weid. 135 (1859). B. White, Eevision, 450.— S. Pontederana 

 y sordida Anderss. DC. Prodr. xvi. (2), 312. — S. cinerea x purpurea 

 Camus, Monogr. 275. Seemen, iv. 294. 



Icon. Forbes, Sal. Wob. t. 43. 



Exs. Wimmer, Sal. Kelict. (Hb. Sal. 10, 59, 100 ; Coll. Sal. 

 145, 147, 148) ; Magnier, 4077 (S. atrocinerea Brotero). Hb. 

 B. White, Nos. 126, 180, 182, 202, 232. B. F. & W. K. Linton, 

 No. 81. Toepffer, Nos. 21, 121. 



A shrub 5-9 ft. high, with rather long straight branches and 

 many branchlets, pubescent only at first ; buds glabrescent. 

 Stipules small rounded. Leaf-blades 1|-2| in. long, obovate- 

 acuminate to oblong-lanceolate, crenulate, pubescent while young, 

 of a slightly shining green becoming glabrous above, glaucous or 

 ashen and glabrescent beneath or with some persistent pubescence. 

 Catkins 1-2 in. long, fl. April, subsessile with obovate obtuse 

 silky bracts; stamens + connate, anthers usually tinged with 

 red ; ovaries conic, grey-tomentose ; pedicels rather short, 

 nectaries shorter ; stigmas short, subsessile. 



This hybrid differs from S. purpurea in stouter twigs which 

 are more branched, young leaves pubescent, stipules + rounded, 

 filaments not wholly united, and ovaries somewhat elongate and 

 pedicelled. It differs from S. cinerea in the reduced stipules, 

 glabrescent twigs and buds, and leaves soon glabrous; shortly 

 conic ovaries shortly pedicelled, filaments + connate, and anthers 

 tinged with red. 



Wimmer describes two main variations : 1. cinerascens (nearer 

 S. cinerea), and 2. glaucescens (nearer S. purpurea, perhaps S. 

 Pontederana Koch) ; and Andersson follows Wimmer in this sub- 

 division. S. Pontederana Schleich. is said by Kerner to have been 

 applied to hybrids of S. purpurea with others of the Gaprece, and 

 should have been avoided as a doubtful name on account of this 

 confusion; but it is employed by Andersson in this aggregate 

 sense, to include hybrids of S. purpurea with four of the Caprece, 

 (DC. Prodr. I.e.). " As, however, he had not united these species, 

 it is scarcely justifiable to unite the hybrids, if it is at all possible 

 to distinguish them ; and he himself has kept them separate as 

 varieties " (B. White, Revision, p. 450). 



Under S. sordida Kerner, the name he prefers for this hybrid, 

 though it is ante-dated by S. cinerea-purpurea Wimmer, B. White 

 describes briefly var. rubella (I. c. p. 451), which he suspects may 

 be a cross of S. rubra (with which it grows) and S. cinerea, i. e. 

 S. purpurea x S. viminalis x cinerea. Leaves and habit of 

 S. purpurea ; catkins small or of medium size ; stamens free ; 

 anthers orange-red, turning fuscous when the pollen is shed; leaf- 

 blades oblanceolate, dark green and shining above, glaucous beneath, 

 soon glabrous, pubescent only while quite young ; branches straight 

 slender, pubescent at the very first, soon glabrous. 



Journal of Botany, June, 1913. [Supplement.] d 



