Salix 



l 75 l 



in spring, as is almost invariably the case with the common weeping willow. Though 

 not so pendulous in habit as the latter, it has graceful drooping branchlets. 



This tree originated on the estate of Baron de Salamon, near Manosque (Basses 

 Alpes) some time before 1869, when it was put on the market by Simon-Louis ot 

 Metz. Carriere recommended this tree, on account of its vigour, 1 for the production 

 of timber ; and stated that it grew on all soils, even on dry soils and on limestone, 

 where the weeping willow refused to grow, or remained stunted and yellow. S. 

 Salamonii comes nearly as early into leaf and retains its foliage almost as late in 

 the season as S. babylonica. 



There are several old trees of 5. Salamonii on the borders of the lake at Kew. 

 The exact age of these is unknown ; but they much surpass in size the true weeping 

 willows beside them. 2 At Casewick, where Lord Kesteven has planted S. Salamonii 

 as a park tree, it thrives well, and has attained 35 ft. in height at eighteen years old. 



3. Salix pendulina, Wender, in Schrift. Natf. Ges. Marburg, ii. 235 (1831). 



Salix blanda, Andersson, Monog. Salic. 50 (1863), and in De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 212 



(1868); Camus, Monog. Saules, 232 (1904). 

 Salix elegantissima, Koch, in Wochschrf. Ver. Bef. Gartb. xiv. 380 (1871), and Dendrologie, 



ii. pt. i. 505 (1872). 



Under these names are possibly included three slightly different hybrids of the 

 same parentage, S. babylonica and S. fragilis. They are wide-spreading trees, with 

 long and pendulous branchlets, differing only slightly in habit from S. babylonica, but 

 much more hardy than this species, and on that account often cultivated in Germany 

 where the true weeping willow is killed by severe frost. I have not been able to study 

 the three forms ; but a tree at Kew, labelled 5. elegantissima? obtained from Dieck 

 in 1889, has leaves more coriaceous and slightly broader than those of 5". babylonica ; 

 both surfaces glabrous, slightly glaucous beneath. Catkins occasionally androgynous, 4 

 usually only pistillate, shorter than in S. babylonica ; axis pubescent ; ovary shortly 

 pedicellate, about ^ in. long, slightly pubescent at the base, with two stylar arms, 

 each arm bilobed ; scale two-thirds the length of the ovary, very pilose ; glands 

 irregular, usually two, one narrowly oblong between the scale and the ovary, the 

 other, posterior, nearly quadrate, and occasionally bilobed. 



Koch states that this tree, which on the Continent is often sold in commerce 

 as S. Sieboldii, is fast in growth, with very long branchlets, almost reaching to the 

 ground. There is a thriving specimen at Glasnevin, about 25 ft. high, which is 

 labelled S. blanda. In the Botanic Garden at Leyden there is a handsome tree, 

 about 40 ft. by 3 ft. in 191 2, which is labelled S. Petzoldii pendula? 



1 In Garden and Forest, x. 497 (1897), it is said to be the fastest-growing willow in California, where, at the Chico 

 Forestry Station, stems cut back in February 1896 to 2 ft. from the ground, were 31 to 32 ft. high in August 1897. 



2 A vigorous young tree on the bank of the Cam, Trinity College, Cambridge, was 35 ft. high by 4 feet in girth in 19 12. 

 Its pyramidal crown with ascending upper branches contrasts much with the older but lower adjacent weeping willows, which 

 have broad flattened crowns and spreading branches. 



3 Both S. blanda and S. elegantissima were described as having perfectly glabrous ovaries ; but notwithstanding this, the 

 Kew tree, received from Dieck, is probably S. elegantissima. Ascherson and Graebner, Syn. Mitteleurop. Flora, iv. 73 (1908), 

 correctly describe S. elegantissima as having a pubescent ovary ; and on that account doubt its being a hybrid between 5. 

 babylonica and S. fragilis. Following Koch, they believe that it was introduced from Japan by Siebold ; and if this is the 

 case, S. fragilis could scarcely have been one of the parents. 



4 As Camus points out, androgynous catkins are common in the hybrids S. blanda and 5. sepulcralis which he describes. 

 6 Cf. Lauche, Haupt-Katalog Muskawr Baumschulen, 1905, p. 32. 



