71. AMENTIFER^. 385 



Estimate of provinces 14. Estimate of counties 40. 



Latitude 50 — 56. English type of distribution. 



Agrarian region. Tnferagrarian — Midagrarian zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula ? 



Ascends to 100 or 200 yards, in England. 



Range of mean annual temperature 51 — 47. 



Native. Sylvestral, Septal. Given as an indigenous 

 tree in the Flora of Shetland by Edmondston ; but there 

 seems a strong presumption that P. tremula has been thus 

 misnamed. Introduced into Moray, according to Gordon; 

 and apparently so in Forfarshire, by the vague notice of it 

 in Gardiner's Flora. Given as a native of the Edinburgh 

 circuit, in the Catalogue mentioned under P. alba ; and 

 also enumerated by Winch, among the plants of the Tyne, 

 without challenge. It is, however, now almost impossible 

 to determine over what area, and in what localities, this 

 tree is really indigenous in Britain. 



Salix. '^ l^'^///.' /- ^^. 



It is with a disinclination, amounting almost to avei'sion 

 and disgust, that I attempt to give the distribution of the 

 species in this variable genus, — not because they are in 

 themselves uninteresting, for their variety of character and 

 stature renders them otherwise, — not because they are un- 

 important, for their numbers and wide distribution render 

 them a prominent feature in British botany, — but because 

 they have been rendered botanically odious in books. 

 Most botanists shrink from the study of them, on account 

 of the difficulties thrown in their way by excessive subdi- 

 visions in books, and the consequent uncertainties and 

 misapplications of names which will continue to impede and 

 perplex, until some botanist of comprehensive and vigorous 

 VOL. II, -2 c 



