1754 "The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



in the Fellows' Garden of King's College, which was about 45 ft. high and 10 ft. in 

 girth in 19 12, with the trunk decayed and mended with cement. 



The weeping willow attains ' a much greater size and beauty in warm countries 

 than it does in England. I have seen none finer than in Chile, where it is often 

 planted by the sides of the irrigation canals, and enjoys a long and warm summer. 



(H. J. E.) 



SALIX FRAGILIS, Crack Willow 



Salix fragilis, Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 1017 (1753); Smith, Fl. Brit. iii. 1051 (1804), Eng. Bot.^ t. 1807 

 (1808), and Eng. Flora, iv. 184 (1828) ; Andersson, Momg. Salic. 41 (1863), and in De CandoUe, 

 Prod. xvi. 2, p. 209 (1868); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 472 (1887); Buchanan White, in 

 Journ. Linn. Sac. {Bot.) xxvii. 368 (1890); Mathieu, Flora Forestiire, 450 (1897); Camus, 

 Monog. des Saules, 76 (1904). 



A tree, attaining about 70 ft. in height. Bark rough, strongly ridged, and 

 divided into broad deep fissures. Young branchlets slightly pubescent, glabrous 

 in the second year. Buds appressed to the branchlet, compressed, shining, glabrous. 

 Leaves lanceolate, about 4 in. long and f in. broad, gradually tapering above 

 into a long caudate oblique acuminate apex, cuneate at the base, silky when young ; 

 upper surface in summer glabrous, shining ; lower surface glaucous or glaucescent, 

 with scattered silky appressed hairs ; margin coarsely serrate, each serration tipped 

 with a conspicuous reddish brown gland ; petiole f^ in. long or more, pubescent, 

 usually with two glands at the insertion of the blade. 



Catkins appearing with the leaves, terminating short branchlets, which bear 

 three or four usually entire leaves ; axis densely pubescent. Male catkins, about 2^ 

 in. long ; scales concave, oblong, truncate or cuspidate, glabrous within, pubescent 

 without, margin fringed with long hairs ; stamens two, filaments as long as the scale, 

 slightly pubescent at the base, anthers yellow ; glands two, the posterior transversely 

 oblong, the anterior half its size and narrowly oblong. Female catkins about 2 in. 

 long ; scales concave, lanceolate, pilose at the base, ciliate, with long hairs ; ovary 

 distinctly stalked (pedicel ^ in. long), one-third longer than the scale, fusiform, 

 glabrous, ^ in. long, gradually narrowing to the apex, which ends in a short style, ' 

 divided into two arms, each of which is bilobed ; only one gland,^ which is posterior, 

 usually present, quadrate, entire in margin, much shorter than the pedicel. Fruiting 

 catkins about 3 in. long, with a pubescent axis, and distinctly stalked capsules. 



S. fragilis is called crack willow, on account of the ease with which the 

 branchlets disarticulate, especially in spring. It is readily distinguishable by its 



1 Salix Safsaf, Dode, in Bull. Soc. Dend. France, 1906, p. 62, fig. (not Forskal), received from Palermo, where it was 

 introduced by Schweinfurth from Egypt, is indistinguishable from 5. babyUmica ; but is remarkably fast in growth and may 

 be a hybrid. A specimen in the nursery of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, which I saw in 1912, though only three years 

 old from a small cutting, was 20 ft. high and 15 in. in girth. M. Dode states that this is perfectly hardy at Paris, none of 

 the shoots being damaged by frost. 



2 One of the male flowers in Eng. Bot. t. 1807, has three stamens; and it is possible that the male plant figured is a 

 hybrid like S. speciosa. 



3 The presence of two glands in the pistillate flower of S. fragilis is very rare, and abnormal. 



