SALIX 
45 
Smith and Borrer described a large number of “ species ” belonging to the series Phylicifoliae ; and some continental 
authorities have several varieties of both S. phylicifolia and S. nigricans. Of these forms, Arnott (in Hooker and Arnott 
Brit. FI. ed. 6, 395 (1850)) writes: — “We can find no good characters to distinguish the... supposed species; and 
notwithstanding we have been supplied with cultivated specimens by Mr Borrer..., we cannot refer our wild ones (and 
those we have ourselves obtained from gardens) with certainty to any of them, so variable is the foliage....” 
We retain S. phylicifolia and S. nigricans as species, though we confess that many plants of the series Phylicifoliae 
conform neither to one nor to the other; but still less do they conform to any other species. We believe the two species 
hybridise freely, and that many of Smith’s and Borrer’s plants (most of which are cited by us among the synonymy of the 
species in question and their hybrids) are more or less complicated hybrids of the two species. We also believe that the 
matter is even more complicated by many of the doubtful plants having been crossed with other allied species, and that it 
is not possible to name, with any approach to accuracy, a large number of forms which occur both in the wild state and 
in cultivation. 
Stream-sides and woods from Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire northwards to 
Zetland, ascending to about 
610 m. in Perthshire. In Ire- 
land, apparently very rare ; co. 
Mayo, co. Sligo, co. Leitrim, 
co. Donegal, co. Antrim, and 
co. Londonderry ; planted in 
co. Westmeath (Praeger Irish 
Top. Bot. p. 284). 
Faeroes, Iceland, Norway 
(ascending to 1 300 m.), Sweden 
(northwards to 71° N.), Den- 
mark, Germany, France, cen- 
tral Europe (to 1900 m. in the 
T yrol), Russia, Pyrenees; Asia — 
from Siberia to northern China. 
S. arbuscula x phyli- 
cifolia Wimmer in Denkschr. 
Schles. Gesellsch. 169(1853); Flo- 
derus in Bih. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl. 
xvii, iii, i, 47 (1891); A. et G. 
Camus Classif. Saul, ii, 176(1905); 
S', myrtilloides Smith FI. Brit. 1056 
(1804) non L. ; S. dicksoniana 1 
Smith Eng. Bot. no. 1390 (1805); 
S. phylicifolia var. dicksoniana Syme 
Eng. Bot. viii 238 (1868) ; x S. dick- 
soniana White in fourn. Linn. Soc. 
xxvii, 412 (1890). 
leones : — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 
1 390, as S. dicksoniana ; A. et G. 
Camus op. cit., Atlas ii, t. 15 (48) 
fig. Z, as x S. dicksoniana. 
Exsiccata ; — Leefe, i, 11, et i, 12 (“received from Mr Borrer as the plant of Smith”), as S. dicksoniana ; 
herb. Marshall, 68, 2117 (but Enander suggests that these are S. nigricans y. phylicifolia), 2118 (but Enander 
suggests that this is S. nigricans'). 
Dwarf undershrub, about a third of a metre high, glabrous. Laminae elliptical, serrate, sub- 
acute, about 3 — 5 cm. long. Catkins sessile or subsessile, appearing before the leaves ; April. Bracts 
hairy. Style short. Stigmas large, stout, yellow, undivided at least when young. Capsules hairy, 
stalked. Staminate plants unknown. 
White thought that S. dicksoniana Smith might perhaps be a hybrid of A. arbuscula and S. phylicifolia. 
Very rare and critical. Sent to Sir J. E. Smith by Dickson from “ the Highlands of Scotland,” and by Winch 
“ from Scotland.” White puts it that Winch’s plant came from the Breadalbane mountains of Perthshire ; but it has 
never been rediscovered. 
A. arbuscula x phylicifolia has been recorded for northern Scandinavia. 
1 “Its name commemorates that great British botanist [James Dickson (1738 — 1822)] who discovered it among his 
own native hills, and who has gathered and discriminated more species perhaps of this genus than any other person ” 
(Smith Eng. FI. iv, 196 (1828)). 
