408 THE CATKIN FAMILY. [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. pedunculated, 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. sessiliflora, Salisb. Leaves on footstalks \ 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 two, 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 dioecious, 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. 

 Eighteen 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. 



