44 THE BRITISH WILLOWS 



A dwarf shrub, rising in cultivation to 3 or 4 ft., much 

 branched, twigs pubescent only at first ; buds pubescent, rounded 

 above ; older wood dark-brown shining in parts. Stipules minute, 

 roundish, not plentiful. Leaf-blades *-H in. (-2 in. cult.) in 

 length, oval-oblong to oval-obovate subacute (the earliest roundish 

 obtuse), serrate, dark green, rather glossy, slightly rugose and 

 pubescent at first above, green glabrescent unless on the midrib 

 (lowest leaves shining) beneath, with veins prominently reticulate. 

 Catkins, $ only known, fl. May, 1-1| in. long, on short peduncles 

 with 3-4 small basal leaves ; ovaries ovate-conic, silkily tomen- 

 tose ; pedicels pubescent 2-3 times as long as the quadrate 

 nectaries ; bracts obovate-spathulate, rounded above and reddish 

 before discolouring at the tip, pubescent ; styles and stigmas 

 moderate, about equal in length, somewhat stained with red. 



S. aurita x myrsinites has been found only in Glen Fiagh, 

 Forfarshire, first in 1889 (No. 18 supra), a form with broad 

 leaves and the earliest nearly round ; a year or two later near the 

 same spot, a wet slope high up the glen, a form with the earliest 

 leaves narrower and none of them round. These both have the 

 leaves green beneath, the earliest glossy green, and only later 

 leaves in cultivation at all glaucous-green. 



S. saxetana B. White, though supposed by its author to be 

 this hybrid, is excluded from the synonymy, since none of the 

 three forms described (I. c. p. 435) show any of the glossy green 

 underleaf of the earlier leaves, which is the crucial test, nor any 

 other satisfactory evidence, of the presence of S. myrsinites. 

 Each of them is a form or hybrid of S. Andersoniana ; No. 462 

 probably a hybrid with S. aurita and S. phylicifolia, and the 

 other two plants apparently hybrids with S. phylicifolia only. 



SALIX AURITA X MYRSINITES X ANDERSONIANA. 



Syn. S. myrsinites x aurita-nigricans Linton in Journ. Bot. 

 1892, 360, 361. 



Exs. E. F. & W. K. Linton, No. 57? Hb. E. F. Linton, 

 No. 147. 



A bush 4-5 ft. high, with the young branches densely pubes- 

 cent, becoming + glabrous by degrees. Stipules broadly |-cordate, 

 with the acute or acuminate tip twisted to one side. Leaf-blades 

 1-2 in. long, ovate or oval-acuminate, sometimes a little obovate, 

 the lowest sometimes rounded ; serrate-crenate to serrate with 

 obtuse somewhat incurving teeth; pubescent at first then glabres- 

 cent and green on the upper surface, densely pubescent beneath, 

 especially on the raised veins, by degrees glabrescent, green; the 

 lower ones glossy green beneath and reticulate as in S. myrsinites ; 

 all rather coriaceous, and blackening somewhat in drying. 



This bush (No. 147) occurred in the Glen Lyon Valley, near 

 Fortingal, Perthshire; probably $ , as no catkins were seen. The 

 evidence of each of the three factors is clear ; the glossy green of 

 the blades and their texture and veining showing S. myrsinites ; 

 the stipules and incurving teeth of the leaves S. aurita, and the 

 dense pubescence and blackening of the foliage S. Andersoniana. 



The willow issued in the Set as No. 57 has not such certain 



