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SALIX 
Petioles about 5 — 7 mm. long, hairy at least when young. Laminae broadly lanceolate to narrowly 
obovate, margin often reflexed when young and more or less crenate, acute to very acute, smaller 
and usually rather more rugose than in the allied hybrids, upper surface at maturity subglabrous or 
with minute but persistent hairs, more or less strongly hairy below. Catkins closely resembling 
those of the allied hybrids but usually smaller, about 2-5 cm. long as a rule, variable in width, 
subsessile or on short peduncles, rather leafy at the base ; April. Bracts sub-ligulate, usually 
narrower than in the allied hybrids, rather strongly discolorous, pilose. Filaments glabrous or pilose 
towards the base. Style rather short but distinct. Stigmas stout, entire or bifid. Capsules rather 
narrow, more or less pubescent, stalked ; late May. 
The putative hybrids of S. viminalis with the members of the series Capreae (S. caprea, S. cinerea, and S. aurita) are 
difficult to separate from each other. In fact, no two Salicologists would agree in the allocation of putative parents to the 
plants in question. One difficulty is that the forms referred respectively to S. caprea x viminalis , 5 . cinerea x viminalis , and 
5. aurita x viminalis are all connected by intermediates which have probably originated by the re-crossing of the various 
hybrids among themselves and with the other putative parents, so that it is possible to find in certain plants any imaginable 
combination of the characters of the four species and the various crosses. Another difficulty is that the three members of 
the series Capreae are themselves closely allied, and, even when pure, are only separable by rather indefinite characters. 
Further, S. viminalis is very distinct from the three Capreae , and its characters are very strongly impressed on all the 
hybrids in question, thus rendering the indefinite characters of the species of the series Capreae still more vague in the various 
hybrid-forms. The final result is a group of hybrid-forms with characters so complicated and blended that they are incapable 
of satisfactory analysis by the morphological methods of the systematist. On this account, many of the synonyms, figures, 
and specimens of this group of hybrids are more or less doubtful. 
There need be no doubt that hybrids of the Capreae with S. viminalis actually occur, for Max Wichura had no difficulty 
in artificially producing S. caprea x viminalis. 
By systematists of the Victorian period, the existence of this group of complicated hybrids might have been held to 
justify the union of S. caprea , S. cinerea , and S. aurita in a single species ; but such an argument would really have 
proved too much, for it would have involved the union of the very distinct S. viminalis in the same synthetic group. 
In this work we retain the conventional hybrid groups S. caprea x viminalis , S. cinerea x viminalis , and S. aurita x viminalis ; 
but this is not because we believe these groups are, at present, really separable, but because there is no better plan 
to offer. In fact, until the species in question have been subjected to artificial hybridisation, re-hybridisation, and cul- 
tivation on a large scale, we do not think any satisfactory treatment of these hybrid forms is possible. 
S. aurita x viminalis is local, by stream-sides and in marshy places generally; in Great Britain, from Sussex to 
Fifeshire and Ross-shire. 
Also recorded for southern Scandinavia, Germany, and France ; and it is perhaps much more widespread 
than the records indicate, being included in the allied hybrids by many continental authors. 
►S', caprea x viminalis Wimmer in Flora xxxii, 41 (1849) excl. f. stipularis p. 42, inch 5. dasyclados 
p. 35 ; A. et G. Camus Classif Saul. 309 (1904) including S'. ( cinerea x viminalis') caprea (ii, p. 265) et x S. 
calodendron (ii, p. 265); v. Seemen in Ascherson und Graebner Syn. iv, 268 (1909) including S. caprea y vimi- 
nalis y. caprea (p. 270) et S. caprea x dasyclados (p. 271); S. affinis Grenier et Godron FI. France iii, 132 (1855). 
5. caprea acuto longoque folio Sherard in Ray Syn. ed. 2, 293 (1696); ed. 3, 450 (1724). 
leones: — FI. Dan. t. 2669, as S. acuminata ; Hartig. Forst. Culturpfl. t. 44, as S. acuminata ; A. et G. 
Camus op. cit., Atlas t. 29, fig. A — F, as x S. lanceolata ; ii, t. 16 (49) fig. A — E, as x S. calodendron. 
Exsiccata : — Billot, xi, 60, as S . acuminata ; Leefe, 30, 31, 32, 33, et i, 22 as S. rugosa\ iv, 86 et iv, 101, 
as S. smithiana ; 27, 29, as S. smithiana ? ; 34, as S. rugosa var. stipularis ; E. F. et W. R. Linton, 12; 13, as 
S. acuminata ; Herb. FI. Ingric. ix, 563, as S. acuminata. 
Shrubs or small trees, usually up to about 3 — 5 m. high. Young branches and buds stouter 
than in S. aurita x viminalis , more hairy, soft, almost velvety to the touch, dark. Stipules per- 
sistent or not, very variable in size and shape. Petioles about 1 ’3 cm. long, pubescent. Laminae 
lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, margin sometimes entire or somewhat undulate and crenulate, acute 
to very acute, up to about 8 — 10 cm. long and about one-eighth to one-third as broad, sub- 
glabrous above, hairy underneath. Catkins sessile or subsessile or shortly peduncled, often more 
or less arched, rather stout, dense-flowered, rather handsome, about 3 — 4 cm. long, appearing 
before the leaves ; late March and April. Bracts ovate to obovate, strongly discolorous, with 
numerous long hairs, variable in size. Ovaries stalked, the length of the stalk variable. Style 
variable in length, as a rule as long as the stigmas at maturity. Stigmas rather stout, usually 
entire. Capsules stout, very hairy, stalked ; May. 
Many continental authors make five or six subdivisions of this hybrid. They are defined by characters of the relative 
length and width of the laminae, the degree of hairyness of the laminae, the comparative length of the nectary and 
gynophore, and the comparative length of the style and stigmas. We have been unable to convince ourselves that these 
characters are correlated. 
