34 THE BRITISH WILLOWS 



(S. longifolia Host from Breslau). E. F. & W. E. Linton, No. 13. 

 Toepffer, Nos. 65, 65 a. 



A tall shrub or small tree, 10-18 ft. high, with densely woolly- 

 pubescent branches, the pubescence unusually long, subpersistent 

 on later summer shoots to the next spring and turning black ; 

 buds with similar pubescence subpersistent through the winter. 

 Stipules large ^-cordate-acuminate often attenuate to a fine point, 

 + denticulate, erect. Leaves large, blades 4-5 in. long by f-l|in. 

 broad, oblong- to obovate-lanceolate with acute tip, commonly 

 broadest about the middle ; crenate to crenate-serrate, dull green 

 and somewhat pubescent above, glaucous-green to glaucous or 

 ashen, rather softly pubescent beneath, densely at first more thinly 

 later. Catkins appearing with the leaves in late March and April, 

 stout subsessile with few small basal leaves ; <? unknown ; 

 2 l|-3 in. long by f in. broad ; bracts oblong-obovate bluntly 

 pointed, silkily villous, the upper half blackish-brown ; ovaries 

 stoutly ovoid-conic, white-tomentose, elongating to \ in. long ; 

 nectaries linear-oblong, about equalling the tomentose pedicels ; 

 styles about the same length as the thick undivided stigmas. 



Wimmer, thinking the name S. acuminata was not free from 

 ambiguity, renamed this plant S. caprea-dasyclados (Denkschr. d. 

 Schles. Ges. p. 163) ; then doubting the suggested parentage, he 

 called it 8. Calodendron (Sal. Eur. 187). Andersson quotes 

 S. Calodendron as a synonym of S. acuminata Sm., having 

 identified the two when discussing with Leefe the latter's Sal. 

 Brit. exs. No. 37, which Leefe had issued with Borrer's sanction 

 as S. acuminata Sm. Dr. F. B. White, on comparing Leefe's 

 specimens of this with Wimmer's S. dasyclados (Coll. Sal. No. 100), 

 found them practically identical. 



The handsome catkins with their large dark bracts displayed 

 against the white background of the ovaries recall the Perthshire 

 form recorded and preserved (Hb. B. White, unnumbered) under 

 the name S. tephrocarpa Wimmer ; and there is good evidence in 

 this (as in that) of a blend of both S. caprea and S. cinerea in its 

 composition. 



S. acuminata Sm. is distinguishable from S. caprea x viminalis 

 by its large handsome catkins with their long dense silky clothing, 

 its upper flowering twigs thickly black-pubescent, and in summer 

 by the persistent pubescence on twigs and buds, a shade of ash 

 colour under the leaves and some serration in their margins above 

 the middle in well-developed specimens. Smith observed the 

 resemblance between these two, having entered the remark, on a 

 sheet of S. acuminata, " We have two vars., one a larger more 

 freely growing tree than the other, with much larger and less 

 crumpled leaves, but we could never ascertain a correct specific 

 difference between them " ; and on an adjoining sheet are speci- 

 mens of S. acuminata and the f. rugosa of S. caprea x viminalis. 

 On another sheet of S. acuminata, Smith has written, " Mr. Crowe's 

 garden No. 2 (S. buddleifolia)." 



Native in lowland situations in Great Britain, where it is 

 supposed to have had its origin, it must usually have been planted, 



