CHAP, CIII. SALICA‘CEH, SA‘LIX. 1523 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, pointed, serrated, silky on both 
sides ; the lowest serratures glandular. Stamens hairy. Germen smooth, 
almost sessile. Stigmas deeply cloven. Scales notched. (Sal. Wob., 
p- 271.) A native of Europe, from Norway and Sweden to the Mediter- 
ranean Sea; of the north-east and west of Asia; and introduced into the 
United States; near all the larger rivers of Russia and Liyonia, es- 
ecially the Irtish, where it attains the height of a large tree. 
tt is frequent in Britain, and also in Ireland; and has long 
been more extensively planted as a timber tree than any other 
species. It grows rapidly, attaining the height of 30 ft. in ten 
or twelve years, and growing 50 ft. or 60 ft. high, or upwards, 7 
even on inferior soils. In favourable situations, it will reach y)ic") 
the height of 80 ft. or upwards, It is very extensively planted N%, 
as a pollard tree, not only in Britain, but in many parts of the 
Continent, and even in Russia; some hundreds of miles of 
the road from Moscow to the Austrian frontier, where it ' 
m 
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crosses those interminable steppes that appear bounded only 
by the horizon, being marked by pollards of S. alba, at regular 
distances along each side of the road. 1914 
Varieties. Mr. Borrer suggests that, perhaps, two species are included in 
S. alba. (Borr. ina letter.) ‘“ One of the few botanists really acquainted 
with willows, Mr. Borrer, has suggested that there are some presumptive 
distinctions between our S. alba and that of Hoffmann, in the shape of the 
lower leaves, and of the bracteas (scales), as well as in the length and 
density of the catkins.” (Smith in Eng. Fl, iv. p. 232.) 
¥ S. a. 2 cerilea; S. alba var. Smith Fl. Brit., p.1072.; S. certlea 
' “Smith Eng. Bot., t. 2431., Forbes in Sal. Wob., No. 137., Smith in 
Rees’s Cyclo., No. 141.; S.alba 6 Smith Eng. Fl., iv. p. 231., Koch 
Comm., p.16. The upland, or red-tinged, Willow, Pontey Profit. 
Planter, 4th ed., 1814, p. 72.; the Leicester Willow, Davy’s Agricul- 
tural Chenustry, \st ed.; BlueWillow, Smith, and our fig. 137. in p.1629. 
— This kind has been treated of by Smith as a variety of S. alba in his 
Fil. Brit., as a species in Eng. Bot., and subsequently, in his Eng. 
Fl., as a variety of S. alba. Forbes, in Sal. Wod., has treated of it 
as a species, and given the following distinctive character of it, which is 
the same as that given in Eng. Bot. Leaves lanceolate, taper-pointed, 
serrated ; the under side at length almost naked of hairs; the lowest 
serratures glandular, Stigmas deeply cloven. (Sal. Wob., p. 273.) 
The female is figured in Eng, Bot., where the male is stated to be 
not discovered; but the figure in Sal. Wob., given as of this kind, 
exhibits the latter sex, which is common, Mr. Borrer informs us, 
about Chichester, Bognor, &c., almost to the exclusion of the female ; 
whilst he has never seen a male S. Alba in flower in Sussex, 
eastward of the neighbourhood of Arundel, with the exception of some 
which he had himself introduced. S. a. czrilea is a native of Britain, 
in meadows and moist woods ; flowering, in the Woburn collection, in 
May, and again in August. This willow, Sir J. E. Smith observes, 
which is * mentioned in the Flora Britannica as a variety of S. alba, is 
so remarkabie and so valuable, that we venture to name it as a species, 
that it may be the more noticed. The male flowers, when known, may, 
perhaps, afford better characters than we have been able to obtain 
from the leaves. The late Mr. Crowe, who found the female plant 
wild in Suffolk, was of opinion that this might be taken for S. 4lba in 
many parts of England, the real one (Z. B.,t. 2430. [ourfig. 1315.]) not 
being known in some of the northern counties. He had for many years 
paid great attention to this tree, as have Mr. Rigby at Framlingham, 
and Mr. Browne at Hetherset, Norfolk. A cutting, planted by the 
latter, became, in 10 years, a tree 35 ft. high, and 5 te. 2in. in girt, 
and was blown down in 1800. This is a rapidity of growth beyond 
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