THE BRITISH WILLOWS 57 



Exs. Hb. Borrer (" S. laurina? Killin ? 1810"; "Garden 

 plant from Sir J. E. Smith "). Leefe, Sal. Brit. exs. No. 43 ; Sal. 

 exs. Nos. 3, 38, 60, 62. Hb. Boswell Syme (" S. laurina, Shrewly 

 Pool, Warwickshire, H. Bromwich "). E. F. & W. R. Linton, 

 No. 14. 



A shrub or small tree, 6-18 ft. high ; branches pubescent at 

 first, at length glabrous and dark brown, 1-2-year old wood show- 

 ing some polish in places, and some striae beneath the bark. 

 Stipules small, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, often absent. Leaf- 

 blades 2-4 in. long, obovate to obovate-oblong, shortly acuminate, 

 ± narrowed to the base, crenate-serrate, or serrate in the upper 

 part, pubescent on both sides while quite young, deep green 

 glabrescent and somewhat shining above, glaucous glabrescent 

 beneath. Catkins coeval with the leaves, fl. May ; $ not seen ; 

 2 1-2 in. long, on short leafy peduncles or subsessile, dense- 

 flowered, becoming rather lax in fruit ; bracts oblong or obovate- 

 oblong, blunt or rounded, pilose ; pedicels 2-4 times as long as 

 the short quadrate nectaries; ovaries white-tomentose, then grey- 

 green with pubescence ; styles long or at least longer than the 

 stigmas, which are usually undivided. 



It has been customary to follow Andersson in regarding 

 S. laurina Sm. as S. caprea x phylicifolia. Wimmer appears at 

 first sight to do the same, discussing S. laurina Sm. under his 

 S. caprea-Weigeliana. But he remarks that it is open to doubt 

 whether his plant is the same as S. laurina Sm., since Smith's 

 description does not agree with his (Wimmer's) specimens ; and 

 later on, he quotes Meyer's suspicion that the S. laurina of 

 botanical gardens on the Continent, all originating from an 

 English stock, may have been produced in gardens from a cross 

 with S. cinerea (Sal. Eur. p. 216 ; cf. p. 78). From a study of 

 descriptions by Smith and others, and of what may be called 

 authentic specimens (e. g. in Hb. Borrer and in Leefe's Sets), I 

 have long been convinced that S. laurina Sm. is S. cinerea x 

 phylicifolia, a hybrid for which there are several British stations, 

 and not S. caprea x phylicifolia, which is extremely rare, and of 

 which I have seen no examples in British herbaria. 



S. cinerea x phylicifolia has been found in Warwickshire, and 

 from Yorkshire to the border ; in Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire, 

 Perthshire, and Forfarshire, in Scotland. It occurs in Scandinavia, 

 but apparently not in Central Europe, otherwise than in botanical 

 gardens. 



SALIX CINEREA X REPENS. 



Syn. S. repens-cinerea Wimmer in Denkschr. Schles. Ges. 171 

 (1853) ; Sal. Eur. 236. B. White, Revision, 394 (as S. caprea x 

 repens). Seemen, iv. 226. 



Exs. Wimmer, Sal. Relict. (Herb. Sal. No. 1; Coll. Sal. 

 No. 245). E. F. & W. R. Linton, Nos. 63, 94. 



A dwarf shrub, with branches 2-3 ft. long, prostrate or slightly 

 ascending, hoary-pubescent at first, buds and upper parts of the 

 twigs shortly pubescent into the winter. Stipules frequent, 

 roundly ^-cordate to ovate-acuminate. Leaf-blades £-2 in. long, 



Journal of Botany, August, 1913. [Supplement.] / 



