408 - THE CATKIN FAMILY. 
t 
[Quercus. 
specific identity has been much discussed, but the arguments adduced 
on each side are not absolutely conclusive in favour of the view here | 
adopted, which is nevertheless the result of a close investigation, carried 
on for many years in various parts of Europe. The following are the 
two British races :— 
a. Q. pedunculata, Ehrh. Leaves sessile or shortly stalked. Fruits 
either clustered or spiked, above the middle of the peduncle 1 to 6 
inches long. The commonest Oak over the greater part of England, ¢ 
Ireland, and the lowlands of Scotland. In the hilly parts of the west . 
and north it is less abundant and less constant in its characters, and 
sometimes absent. 
b. Q. sesstliflora, Salisb. Leaves on footstalks 4 to 1 inch long. — 
Fruits solitary or clustered, either closely sessile on the branch or borne 
on a short peduncle an inch long. Frequently scattered in woods of 
the pedunculate variety, and then pretty constant in its characters, 
rarely constituting the mass of oak-woods in the lower parts of Britain, 
but in North Wales and the hilly parts of northern England it is the 
commonest of the 200 and much more variable ; in Ireland said to be 
rare and local. 
VIII. SALIX. WILLOW. 
Leaves variable, but not triangular nor rhomboidal. Stipules often 
very conspicuous, but sometimes small or deficient on other branches 
of the same plant. Flowers dicecious, in cylindrical, usually silky-hairy 
catkins, with small, entire scales. Stamens in the males 2, rarely 3, 5, 
or even more, or united into one, with slender filaments, and small 
anthers, and a gland-like scale either between the stamens and the 
axis, or more rarely between the stamens and the catkin-scale, or two 
scales, one on each side, but no perianth. Female flowers solitary 
within each scale, with a gland-like inner scale between the ovary and 
the axis. Ovary conical, sessile or stalked, 1-celled, with several ovules 
inserted on 2 short parietal placentas. Style forked, each lobe entire or 
shortly 2-lobed. Fruit a conical capsule, opening in 2 valves. Seeds 
several, minute, with a tuft of long, white, silky hairs. | 
A. vast genus, widely spread over the world, but particularly abun- 
dant in the northern hemisphere, from the tropics to the Arctic zone, 
ascending high upon alpine summits and in low countries chiefly in- 
habiting wet or sandy situations. The great variations in the shape of 
the leaves of many species, and the difficulty of matching the male and 
female specimens, or the young and old leaves of those species which 
flower before the leaves are out, have produced a multiplication of 
supposed species, and a confusion amongst them, beyond all precedent. 
Kighteen of these are enumerated in the student’s British Flora, thirty 
in Babington’s Manual; the following fifteen are, however, all that appear 
to me to be truly distinct among the British ones; at the same time, 
reliable observations are wanting on the variation of particular char- 
acters, especially amongst the mountain species, and intermediate forms 
between very dissimilar species are not unfrequent in herbaria. These 
are in some cases taken from trees or shrubs much altered by cultiva- 
tion, others have been proved to be natural hybrids; in neither case 
can they be considered as botanical species. a8 i 
