THE BRITISH WILLOWS 31 



pubescent at first becoming puberulous or glabrous. Stipules 

 rather large, ^-cordate- to ^-ovate-acuminate, + serrate or dentate 

 on the outer edge. Leaf -blades large, 2-5 in. long by |-1| in. 

 broad, broadly lanceolate, sometimes shortly ovate-lanceolate (S. 

 rugosa Leefe), with margins flat or scarcely undulate, subentire to 

 crenulate, green soon glabrescent above, grey to grey-green densely 

 and softly pubescent beneath, pubescence often subpersistent. 

 Catkins about 1 in. long in flower, stout silky subsessile or shortly 

 peduncled with few basal leaves or ; $ appearing just before 

 the leaves in April, $ with the leaves, elongating to 1^ or 2 in. ; 

 bracts of both oblong-lanceolate to obovate-acuminate, clothed 

 with long silvery or dark grey silky hairs ; ovaries large, tomen- 

 tose ; pedicels shorter at first, at length as long to twice as long 

 as the oblong nectaries, styles and stigmas subequal of moderate 

 length. 



Several forms of this hybrid have been named, by Wimmer 

 and others, as varieties, the breadth of the leaf and the quality of 

 the pubescence chiefly furnishing characters for distinguishing 

 them. It is, however, of more importance to separate the hybrids 

 of S. viminalis with the three British species of the Caprea than 

 to split up these hybrids into varieties, which are at best 

 indefinite forms shading into one another. Andersson seems to 

 have thought this a hopeless task, and places the hybrids of 

 S. viminalis with S. aurita, S. caprea, and S. cinerea under an 

 aggregate x S. Smithiana, in three groups — a sericans Tausch., 

 ft velutina Schrad., and y acuminata Smith, with x S. stipularis 

 Sm. as an independent hybrid. 



With regard to the name S. Smithiana, Andersson was right 

 in his treatment of it as an aggregate. From the first, hybrids 

 of S. caprea and S. cinerea with S. viminalis have been confused 

 under this name ; and while modern salicologists have usually set 

 down S. Smithiana as a hybrid of S. caprea, it is evident that the 

 figure in E. B. (t. 1509), with its pubescent flowering shoots, &c, 

 is S. cinerea x viminalis ; while Smith's description (Engl. EL), 

 if not entirely this latter hybrid, blends in it some of those features 

 which distinguish it from the former. Similar confusion is found 

 commonly in British herbaria, in which the larger portion of 

 specimens labelled *S'. Smithiana are S. cinerea x viminalis, a 

 great many of the corresponding S. caprea hybrid being distin- 

 guished under Leefe's name S. rugosa. 



S. caprea x viminalis has been found in several counties, from 

 Cornwall, Dorset, and Kent northwards to Eoxburgh and Arran, 

 and doubtless occurs in many for which it has not yet been 

 recorded; Co. Limerick, Queen's County, and Antrim, in Ireland. 

 Europe : Holland and Belgium, Vosges Mountains (Hb. Magnier), 

 Germany, Bohemia, Switzerland, Austria, Galicia. 



SALIX CINEREA X VIMINALIS. 



Syn. S. Smithiana Willd. (En. Hort. Berol. ii. 1008?). Koch, 

 Syn. 746. Sm. Engl. El. iv. 229, pro parte. Syme, E. B. viii. 226. 

 B. White, Kevision, 418. — S. X Smithiana ft velutina Anderss. 

 DC. Prodr. xvi. (2) 268. — S. cinerea- viminalis Wimmer, Sal. Eur, 



