THE WILLOWS OF OHIO. 289 



seven years I have been continually on the lookout for it but 

 have seen less than half a dozen individuals which were not 

 clearly planted. One of these was on the Hocking River near 

 Sugar Grove ; the others were along the lake shore in Ashtabula 

 county. 



In Europe Salix baby Ionic a hybridises freely with 5. jragilis. 

 But in this country the manuals have not included such a cross. 

 A single plant was discovered at Sandusky during the season of 

 1903. * The leaves and habit were so exactly intermediate be- 

 ween the two that there could be no doubt of its identity. 



At Ashtabula was found a plant w T hich from leaf and habit 

 I take to be a hybrid between the present species and Salix alba, 

 which is not reported in the manuals. 



LONGIFOLIAE, THE LONG-LEAVED WILLOWS. 



The longifoliae comprise a very distinct and compact group 

 of American willows. They have no close affinities with any 

 other group and do not intermingle with any. They have two 

 stamens (a specimen in the Ohio herbarium has three) and light 

 one-colored deciduous scales which show their relationship with 

 both the polyandrous and diandrous willows. Within the group 

 the many described species are difficult to recognize; Bebb, him- 

 self, said after he had described two or three of them that he did 

 not know but what they were all one species after all. The group 

 is very easily recognized by the venation of the leaves which is 

 different from any other willow and much resembles that of many 

 Onagaraceae, for example the fire weed. There is typically a 

 prominent marginal vein running clear round the leaf, connected 

 with the midrib by a series of distant nearly straight primaries be- 

 tween w T hich there are practically no secondaries and no mesh- 

 work, only a few costals running parallel to the primaries. But 

 in young leaves the veins ascend at a much sharper angle and 

 the marginal vein is not so prominent while the secondaries and 

 tertiaries have not yet faded from view so that the above descrip- 

 tion will not hold. The leaves in some of the species are very 

 long and sometimes so narrow that it is difficult to find any veins 

 at all. 



* Ohio Nat. 4:13 Nov. 1903. 



Plate VI. Salix longipes (left) and Salix babylonica (right). 



Typical specimens natural size; capsules enlarged three times 



