THE BRITISH WILLOWS 59 



and + narrowed to the base, more rarely oval (var. parvifolia), 

 with straight or twisted or recurved tip, entire, subentire, or 

 serrate with small and distant teeth or denticulations ; reticulate 

 when dry with raised veins, green or grey-pubescent at first, 

 + glabrescent above then often shining, glaucous + pubescent 

 with adpressed silky hairs beneath which are often deciduous ; 

 often blackening when dried ; margins commonly reflexed. Catkins 

 usually flowering before the leaves, in May, sometimes coeval ; 

 cf J-f in. long, ovoid to oblong, slender, sessile, leafless or with 

 small basal leaves, filaments glabrous; ? %-l in. long, often 

 elongate in fruit, globose to oblong, sessile or on short leafy 

 peduncles ; bracts spathulate or oblong-obovate, clasping the 

 ovaries and reddish at first, then lax and blackening above, ciliate 

 or pubescent over the back ; ovaries short, conic to ovoid-conic, 

 often laterally compressed, silkily pubescent or tomentose, more 

 rarely glabrous, often rubescent in exposure ; pedicels elongate, at 

 length about 3 times as long as the short broad nectaries ; styles 

 usually short, but variable, sometimes long ; stigmas variable, 

 small or large, divided or entire, yellow or reddish. 



One of the most variable of European willows ; and several 

 species were made of its variant forms by earlier salicologists. 

 Smith describes S. argentea, S. fcetida (S. ascendens), and S. 

 prostrata, besides adopting the Linnean species, S. fusca, S. in- 

 cubacea, and S. rosmarinifolia, as species distinct from S. repens, 

 under which later botanists placed them as varieties. It is 

 difficult to keep up even as varieties forms such as these, which 

 shade off into one another. S. argentea with its more upright 

 growth, and silvery leaves, and frequent stipules, is one of the 

 most distinct, but is connected by intermediate forms with the 

 others. A more distinct position must be given to S. rosmarini- 

 folia L., which is clearly a variety of S. repens. 



Var. rosmarinifolia (L.). 



Syn. S. rosmarinifolia L. Sp. PL 1020. Sm. Fl. Brit. 1062 ; 

 Engl. Fl. iv. 214 ; in Rees Cycl. 109. B. White, Revision, 391. 

 Garry in Journ. Bot. Suppl. 1904, 190.— S. repens L. var. rosmari- 

 nifolia Syme, E. B. viii. 248, tt. 1363, 1364 (var. angustifolia).— 

 S. Arbuscula Sm. Fl. Brit. 1050 ; Engl. Fl. iv. 198. 



Icon. E. Bot. tt. 1365, 1366 (var. angustifolia). Forbes, 86. 



Exs. Hb. Smith, "S. Arbuscula Fl. Brit., Mr. Crowe's 

 garden." Leefe, Sal. exs. No. 24. Hb. Borrer. Baenitz, Hb. 

 Europ. No. 8651. E. F. & W. R. Linton, No. 72. Toepffer, 

 Nos. 39, 142. 



This variety is distinguished by the long linear leaves, which 

 are ± pubescent at first, but soon become glabrous, and the small 

 subglobose catkins. 



There is a valuable discussion on the status of S. rosmarini- 

 folia L. by B. White (I. c. 391), and a clear statement and eluci- 

 dation of the ambiguity that has gathered round the name on the 

 label of Toepffer's No. 39. 



There is much doubt whether this form was ever a plant of 



f 2 



