THE BRITISH WILLOWS 29 



except near the tip ; buds crowded above, pubescent, upper ones 

 persistently. Stipules small lanceolate, soon deciduous ; petioles 

 very short with dilated bases. Leaf-blades 4-10 in. long, sub- 

 linear to lanceolate, broadest below the middle, attenuate upwards, 

 cuneate at the base, with undulate margin subentire or obscurely 

 crenate, revolute when young; green, glabrous or glabrescent 

 above, grey-tomentose with fine closely adpressed shining hair 

 beneath. Catkins fl. April before the leaves, dense-flowered, 

 rather stout, subsessile, with a few small leaves at the base or ; 

 $ 1-lf in. long, ovoid-oblong, rachis very silky ; stamens long, 

 glabrous ; ? about 1 in. long in fl., 1-2| in. in fruit ; bracts 

 oblong-spathulate or obovate-subacute, pilose, rusty brown, 

 blackening much above ; ovaries \-\ in. long, usually broad-based 

 ovoid-conic, subsessile, tomentose, grey or greyish-green with 

 adpressed hair ; nectaries linear, much exceeding the very short 

 pedicels, often incurved ; styles long, nearly equalling the long 

 slender stigmas. 



There is a curious form from the river- side base of Little 

 Doward, Herefordshire, with cordate-lanceolate stipules \-\ in. 

 long, broad and dentate or denticulate in the lower half, abruptly 

 contracted with attenuate point, which is a good example of the 

 var. stipularis Leefe (British Salices, Arrangement and Description 

 of, No. 12 y, undated). 



The var. intricata Leefe (I. c. No. 12 /3) was defined as having 

 broader leaves, shorter and broader ovaries, short styles, and 

 stigmas divided reflexed and entangled. Such a plant has been 

 distributed by the Bev. A. Ley from Wilton, Herefordshire 

 (B. E. C. Rpt. 1887, 189), but is scarcely separable from the type 

 as a distinct variety. 



There is a var. linearifolia Wimmer u. Grab. (Fl. Siles. ii. 

 (1829) 368) with narrow linear leaf- blades, probably the same as 

 ft angustissima Coss. et Germ. (Fl. env. Paris, ed. 2, 618), to 

 which may be referred a plant found at Market Weston, Suffolk ; 

 the product, it may be, of the hard dry ground on which it grew. 



Osier growers have in cultivation at least six varieties of 

 8. viminalis which are distinguished by their good or indifferent 

 qualities for commercial purposes — a smooth straight habit, tough- 

 ness of peel and pliability of wood that bends without breaking 

 being the qualities most valued ; " Longskins " is reckoned best 

 by one grower for its tough peel ; " Brown Merrins " next best 

 for its pliable wood ; while " Yellow Osier," which excels in these 

 points, is condemned because " side-sprigged," or running to 

 branchlets, which spoils it for high-class work (on "Cultivation of 

 Osiers," see a paper A 3— 93 published by the Board of Agriculture). 

 21 I 



S. viminalis is of frequent occurrence, at a low level, through- 

 out the British Isles, except in the North of Scotland ; usually 

 planted, by streams, in hedges on marshy ground, and in osier 

 holts ; perhaps indigenous in eastern and central England, at 

 times self-sown (e.g., in Herefordshire). Throughout Central and 

 Northern Europe ; also in Siberia. 



