SOME SCOTCH WILLOW HYBRIDS. 443 



that ants do visit Cecropia. It is a fact, then, that young Cecropim 

 (I ouce found a single female at the internode), and sometimes the 

 older ones, at least for several weeks at a time, are free from auts. 

 It appears that here also it is only a case of living together for 

 mutual benefit, interesting enough in itself, but not an absolute 

 dependence on both sides. In this latter wide sense I accept the 

 meaning of the word symbiosis. More detailed information can 

 only be obtained by a close study of ant life, which would enter too 

 much into the region of zoology to be introduced here. 



SOME SCOTCH WILLOW HYBRIDS. 



By W. R. Linton, M.A. 



S. PHYLiciFOLiA X REPENS. By the sidc of the Corriemulzie 

 Stream, Braemar, S. Aberdeen, July 31, 1897. A low creeping 

 bush spreading over about a square yard or so in the turf, and 

 sending up branches about six inches high, which are much hidden 

 in the herbage ; leaves small, glaucous underneath, and with more 

 or less revolute margins. One withered catkin was noticed, showing 

 the plant to be female. This is, as far as I can find, the first 

 discovery of the hybrid for Britain ; and neither Andersson nor 

 Wimmer appears to know of a native station for it. It is familiar 

 as a cultivated plant under the name of S. hicolor. 



S. Lapponum X PHYLICIFOLIA. Gathered in 1890 at the head of 

 Glen Doll, Forfarshire, and commented on in the B. E. C. Report 

 for that year by Dr. F. B. White. After being cultivated at Shirley 

 for some years, the shape, reticulation and entire margin of the 

 leaves, and the character of the catkins suggested the idea of 

 S. Lapponum as the element which had combined in it with S. phy- 

 licifolia. This is corroborated by the fact that Rev. E. F. Linton 

 has produced at Bournemouth an exactly similar plant by crossing 

 the above two species. 



S. Arbuscula X HERBACEA. In addition to the localities men- 

 tioned in Dr. White's Revision, I have this hybrid from Corrie 

 Ardran, Mid Perth, whence I brought a seedling plant of it in 

 1891. The catkins are very close to those of S. Jrbuscula, the 

 leaves as definitely favour S. herbacea. 



S. HERBACEA X NIGRICANS. GlcH Fiagh, Clova, Forfarshire, 

 July, 1891. The tendency of the leaves to blacken in drying, the 

 strong pubescence of the under side of the young leaves, and 'the 

 glaucous green of the mature leaves, the broad brown catkin-scales, 

 dilated nectary, long pedicel and style, point to S. nigricans as the 

 element which has been combined with S. herbacea. 



