860 



SOME SCOTTISH WILLOWS. 



neither exactly S. strepida nor yet S. avrita x nigricans, from the 

 Cloya Valley, about a mile below the Inn; in cultivation the 

 aunta element is more clearly present than cinerea, as evidenced by 

 the strongly waved leaf - serration and twisted tip, a certain arching 

 in the stipule, and the short catkin ; but there are modifications in 

 the foliage and twigs which make it pretty clear that this plant is 



S. lutescens x nigricans. 



8. aurita x cinerea (S. lutescens Kern.). — Two forms from the 

 Clova Valley. One with rather short obovate leaves from Bra- 

 doonie ; another with long leaves nearly oblanceolate from a mile 

 south of Clova. 



S. aunta x phylicifolia {S. ludificans F. B. White). — Dunbeath 

 Strath, Caithness. The foliage of this plant does not differ much 

 from some forms of 8. phylicifolia, though both leaves and stipules 

 are influenced in some degree by the other parent; but in the 

 catkins, some of which were over and some in good condition, 

 aurita preponderates, the style being moderate in length, the 

 stigmas small, the scales narrow oblong and scarcely discoloured 

 upwards ; the catkin itself being of about the average size for 

 aurita, and short and small for phylicifolia. In specimens sent us 

 by Mr. J. T. Johnstone from "ditch at the foot of the Kerr, Dum- 

 friesshire," the leaves are exactly intermediate, obovate-oblong to 

 narrow ovate, narrowed to the petiole, and more or less rugose ; 

 the catkins are small as in the last, but the ovaries, grey-pubescent 

 in both cases, are more closely packed in this, and the scale is 

 much darkened upwards and subacute. We have received another 

 specimen of this hybrid through the Bot. Exch. Club, collected 

 some years ago by Mr. Richard McKay in the Possil Marsh, 

 Lanarkshire, which in its twigs and the lower leaves on the twigs 

 recalls phylicifolia strongly, but the upper have the shape and 

 serration of broadly obovate -leaved forms of 8. aurita, and the 

 ovaries are just those of aurita, except for the style. 



S. aurita x nigricans Heidenreich. — Besides one or two other 

 gatherings we have previously published, we have this from the 

 Clova Valley, obtained from the part of the valley already referred 

 to as good for willows, a mile or so below the Inn. This has the 

 leaf-characters that we have noticed before in this hybrid, the 

 young leaves being clothed with dense silky pubescence, much of 

 which rapidly falls off ; the older leaves are slightly pubescent, but 

 not obviously so. The young twigs similarly are densely clothed 

 with deciduous pubescence. 



In connection with this last, we place on record a very curious 

 combination, which will seem incredible, a triple hybrid formed 

 trom 8. aunta, S. Myrsinites, and S. nigricans. The locality is the 

 puzzle, not the co-existence of these three in one and the same 

 willow, lhe bush grew in Glen Lyon, in the valley, not a great 

 way trom Fortingal ! We have seen very good 8. aurita x nigricans 

 in the same neighbourhood, but how did the Myrsinites element get 

 W<f a; tf e - plau \ of which we onl y ha ™ Ullage (and our cuttings 

 v«™„ l! } ' 1S f,^ 8i S ht J ust uk e valley aurita x nigricans ; 



young leaves clothed with ti.J^ rmV^^^J. w „i»v_„„„_* +« 



