1760 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



stamens two, united and pubescent at the base ; glands two, anterior quadrate and 

 entire, posterior small and ligulate ; scale concave, ciliate, half the length of the 

 stamens. Pistillate catkins, 4 in. long; ovary sessile, glabrous, about ^ in. long, 

 ovoid, abruptly narrowed towards the apex ; style short, the two arms apparently 

 undivided (really slightly bilobed) ; scale, fringed with long hairs, and as long as 

 the ovary ; gland, one, posterior, quadrate. Fruiting capsules sessile, } in. long. 



5. a/da appears to be very variable in the size and pubescence of the leaves ; 

 but doubtless some of the varieties attributed to S. alba are forms of the hybrid, 

 S. viridis, in which the characters of S. alba are dominant. The following form 

 is in cultivation : — 



I. Van argentea, Wimmer, Sal Europ. 17 (1866). 



Var. splendens, Andersson, in De Candolle, Prod. xvi. 2, p. 211 (1868). 



Van leucophylla, Simon-Louis, Cat. 1869, p. 85. 



Var. regalis, Beissner, in Gartenflora, xxvi. 40 (1877). 



Salix splendens, Bray, ex Opiz, Boehm. Gew. no (1823). 



Salix regalis, Wesmael, in Bull. Cong. Bot. Brux. 1864, p. 280. 



Young branchlets and leaves on both sides covered with dense silvery white 

 tomentum. This is highly effective in beds in gardens when cultivated in masses, 

 the single stems being kept about 1 2 ft. high by pruning. At Glasnevin there is a 

 thriving tree about 35 ft. high. 



Distribution 



S. alba is widely spread through central and southern Europe, extending 

 southwards to Algeria and Morocco, and eastwards to western and northern Asia. 

 It is impossible to define its northern limit in Europe, as its natural area has 

 been much extended by planting ; but, according to Schiibeler, it is not wild in 

 Scandinavia, where it is occasionally planted as far north as lat. 63° 52' in western 

 Norway. In Russia,^ it is probably wild as far north as southern Livonia, Vitebsk, 

 Smolensk, Moscow, Vladimir, Kostroma, Viatka, and Perm ; and is common in the 

 Crimea, where it attains a large size. It is widely spread in the Caucasus, north 

 Persia, and Asia Minor ; and occurs in Siberia as far east as Lake Baikal ; but it is 

 only cultivated^ in the northern Himalayas and in western Tibet. 



It is doubtfully wild in northern Germany, where it is, however, planted to a 

 considerable extent. Farther south, it is undoubtedly indigenous in southern 

 Germany, Austria, the Balkan peninsula, Italy, Spain, and the greater part of 

 France.^ In central and southern Europe, it is often the dominant tree in the 

 forests of the alluvial plains and in the woods on the banks of rivers, as on the 

 Danube and its great tributaries, where it either forms pure stands or grows in 

 mixture with Quercus pedunculata, Populus nigra, and Salix fragilis. It grows in 

 similar situations to the last species, but thrives in lighter and more sandy soils. It 

 ascends the river valleys in the mountains to 1400 ft. in the Bavarian Forest, 

 to 2700 ft. in the Bavarian Alps, to 2900 ft. in Transylvania, to 3200 ft. in the 

 Caucasus, and to 5400 ft. in the Sierra Nevada. The comparatively low altitude 



1 Koppen, Hohgew. Europ. Russlands, ii. 259 (1889). s J. D. Hooker, Flora Brit. India, v. 629 (1888). 



2 It is common on the banks of all the large rivers of western France from the Seine to the Adour ; and appears to be 

 the sole native large willow in these situations where I saw no S. fragilis in 1912. 



