HELLEBORINE 45 



The tree is 80 ft. high. It flowers in April and May. It is a 

 deciduous tree propagated by seeds. 



The flowers are adapted, as in S. fragilis, to visits by insects, and 

 are also pollinated by the wind, having been derived from such 

 ancestors (see S. fragilis). The honey is half-concealed. 



The seeds are fringed with white silky hairs, and are thus blown 

 to a distance by aid of the wind. The hairs help to fasten the seed 

 also when it has come to rest on the ground. 



Like other willows White Willow is a humus-loving plant growing 

 on a peat soil, but is also a clay-loving plant (pelophilous) and will 

 grow on clay soil. 



The margins of the leaves are galled by Eriophyes marginatus 

 and Cecidomyia clausilia. A beetle, E later sanguineus (rufipennis)\ 

 several Hymenoptera, Cimbex variabilis, Nematus caprece; Lepidop- 

 tera, Camberwell Beauty ( Vanessa antiopd}, Red-tipped Clearwing 

 (Trochilum formicceformis}, Striped Twin-spot Carpet (Cidaria sali- 

 catd}; several Homoptera, Idioceris adustus, I. cupreus, I. herrickii, 

 visit it. 



The second Latin name refers to the white colour of the tree, due 

 to the pubescence of the leaves. This tree is called Duck Willow and 

 White Willow. 



It is used for fencing-poles, crates, fuel, being pollarded like the 

 Crack Willow, and the bark is used for tanning. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



285. Salix alba, L. Tree, spreading, twigs pliable, leaves lanceol- 

 ate, silky both sides, catkins lax, erect, capsule subsessile. 



Helleborine (Helleborine longifolia, Rendle and Britten 

 = Epipactis pahistris, Crantz) 



There is no trace of this Orchid in a fossil state. It is found at the 

 present day in Europe and Siberia in the North Temperate Zone. In 

 Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula province, but not in W. Corn- 

 wall; in the Channel province, except in W. Sussex; in the Thames 

 province, except in S. Essex; in Anglia, except in Hunts; in the 

 Severn province not in Gloucs, Monmouth; S. Wales in Glamorgan 

 and Carmarthen; N. Wales not in Montgomery or Merioneth; in the 

 Trent province; in the Mersey, H umber, Tyne, Lakes provinces, 

 except in the Isle of Man; and in Berwick, Haddington, Edinburgh, 

 Fife, N. Ebudes. From Fife and Perth it is general elsewhere to the 

 south coast; being local and rare in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



