1748 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



crowded with flowers ; scales pubescent at the base ; stamens usually five, rarely four 

 to ten, unequal in length, with long hairs on the base of the filaments ; and with two 

 glands, the one beneath the scale often three-lobed, the other quadrate or broadly 

 crescentic. Pistillate catkins, i^ in. long ; scales about half as long as the ovary, 

 fringed with long hairs ; ovary stalked, glabrous, about | in. long, narrowly conic- 

 subulate, with a short style, dividing into two arms, each of which is bifid ; glands ^ 

 two, one minute beneath the scale, the other quadrate and half the length of the 

 pedicel. Capsules, J inch long, on distinct pedicels, glabrous, narrow and elongated. 



This species varies in the size and shape of the leaf, broad-leaved and 

 narrow-leaved forms being distinguished by Andersson as vars. latifolia and 

 angustifolia ; but intermediate forms are common. Buchanan White states that in 

 Britain, S. pentandra is a bushy shrub in the wild state, but that when cultivated, it 

 becomes a tree with broader and larger leaves than those of the wild plant. 



The bay willow is a very distinct-looking species, on account of its broad 

 glabrous shining leaves, which resemble those of a Prunus ; but is readily recog- 

 nised to be a willow by its buds with a single scale. The flowers are fragrant, 

 with an odour similar to that of the bay or true laurel {Laurus nobilis) ; and the 

 leaves exhale the same fragrance, especially when bruised. 



The following hybrids have 5*. pentandra as one of the parents : — 



1. Salix Meyeriana, Rostkovius, ^;i: Willkomm, Berlin Baumz. 427 (181 1). 



Salix cuspidata, Schultz, Prod. FL Starg. Suppl. 47 (1819) ; Borrer, in Smith and Sowerby, Eng. 



Bot. Suppl. V. tt. 2961-2962 (1863); Buchanan White, in Journ. Linn. Soc. (£ot.) xxvii. 



360 (1890). 

 Salix tinctoria, Smith, in Rees, Cycl. xxxi. No. 13 (1815). 



Leaves similar to those of S. pentandra, but narrower and more cuspidate at 

 the apex. Pistillate catkins more slender and more tapering, and bearing narrower 

 and more cylindrical capsules with longer pedicels. Stamens usually four. 



This hybrid, of which the parents are supposed to be S. pentandra and 5. 

 fragilis, is said to be somewhat common on the Continent ; but in England is rare 

 in the wild state. It is recorded as a pistillate plant in Shropshire by Buchanan 

 White. There are also specimens in the Kew Herbarium collected in 1895 on 

 Wybunbury Bog in Cheshire by Linton. Dr. Moss adds to this distribution 

 Herefordshire and Westmoreland in England, and Co. Mayo and Co. Kildare in 

 Ireland ; and tells me that it is occasionally planted in osier beds in Cambridgeshire 

 and Suffolk. There is a fine tree in the Glasnevin Botanic Garden, about 40 feet 

 high by 4 ft. in girth in 1912. Sir F. Moore states that it was obtained from 

 Smith of Worcester, as the Purple King Willow, a name given to it on account of 

 its purplish shoots. He adds that it is a quick grower, flowering early in spring, 

 with beautiful large staminate catkins, the twigs being useful for house decoration. 



2. Salix hexandra, Ehrhart, Beit. vii. 138 (i 791); Buchanan White in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc. {Bot.) xxvii. 361 (1890). 



Salix Ehrhartiana, Smith, in Rees, Cycl. xxxi. No. 10 (1815). 



Leaves lanceolate, long acuminate at the apex, silky pubescent at first, but 



I Fraser, Proc. Roy. Hort. Soc. xxxv. p. cxv (1909), showed specimens of flowers of S. pentandra, with proliferation of 

 the posterior gland, giving rise to two, or three additional pistils. 



