bury, in June 1836, and subsequently, by the Rev. L. Dar-
wall, in the neighbourhood of Pountesbury, Shropshire. We
are indebted to both for specimens. Mr. Darwall remarks
of his, that they were from trees in a hedge, which had,
doubtless, been planted; but adds, “ Of trees which seem not
to have been planted I have, in one place or other, observed
several.” In the earlier editions of Hooker’s British Flora,
this species was erroneously admitted as growing at Brough.
A tree of moderate size, attaining the height of upwards of
30 feet. Branches brittle at the base, spreading; twigs
greenish olive, at first green and slightly grooved. Leaves,
when full-grown, 3 or 4 inches in length, elliptic-lanceolate,
with a long point, even dark green and shining above, paler,
but not glaucous, beneath; the whole margin closely serrated
with gland-tipped teeth; viscid, and giving out a poplar
like fragrance while young; earlier leaves shorter and less
cuspidate; the lowest obovate and blunt, and soon falling off:
leaf-stalks about half an inch long, with a pair or two, or often
a small cluster, of glands at the base of the leaf. Stipules
attending the later leaves, soon falling off, oblique, reniform
or half-heart-shaped, sometimes pointed, but more usually
rounded, edged with glandular teeth, and bearing a cluster of
glands on the upper side. Catkins cylindric-oblong, on stalks
of about their own length when in flower, which are loosely
beset with 5 or 6 leaves, like the lower ones on the leaf-
shoots ; flowers closely set on a downy rachis; scales oblong,
filmy, slightly wrinkled, sparsely hairy within and without;
their apex rounded, slightly thickened, but not ragged with
glands: nectary clasping the base of the fruit-stalk, the inner
lobe usually entire, the exterior small, perhaps sometimes suppressed.
Germen glabrous, on a short glabrous stalk, pale
green, subquadrate, subulate, gradually tapered to the scarcely
distinguishable style, which is terminated by two pale recurved
slightly cleft stigmas. The capsule becomes ovate at the base,
and obsoletely tubercled, and its stalk at length 3 or 4 times
as long as the nectary. A few silvery deciduous hairs occur
on the young leaves of strong shoots; otherwise the whole
plant, except the catkins, is free from pubescence.
In the male tree, not yet found wild in Britain, the twigs
are somewhat browner; the leaves somewhat larger and
longer; the stipules larger, usually acuminate, more copiously
beset with glands; the nectary is usually more developed, its
outer lobe often 2- or 3-cleft; the stamens are 2-5, mostly 4,
hairy at the base, 2 or 3 times as long as the gland that surrounds
them, often unequal in length.
S. cuspidata grows to a larger tree than S. pentandra, and
its habit more resembles that of S. fragilis. In S. pentandra
the leaves vary in shape, but are less remarkably cuspidate;
their stalks have less numerous glands at the base of the leaf;
the stipules are much smaller and inconspicuous; the calyx-
scales toothed with glands; the male catkin is thicker and
shorter; the stamens are more numerous; the advanced capsules
on shorter stalks.
S. fragilis* has leaves of narrower proportion, more lax,
less shining, their underside glaucescent, their serratures
coarser, less glandular, and scarcely at all viscid or fragrant;
the lowest glands not usually more remarkable than the rest,
although they do occasionally grow out into a lengthened
point. The young leaves and tips of the branchlets are more
silky. The catkins are more lax. The stamens, mostly 2,
vary to 3,4, 5, usually of unequal lengths. The nectary, too,
is very variable, the interior portion in the male flower sometimes
assuming wholly or partially the appearance of a small
abortive germen.
The American S. lucida, Muhl., has much in common with
S. cuspidata, but we believe it a distinct species.
We ought, perhaps, to adopt the earlier name for our
Willow, since it scarcely admits of doubt that it is the species
named S. Meyeriana by Willdenow in a German work which
we have not seen. Schultz (l. c.) observes, judging from a
dried specimen, that Willdenow’s plant is nearer to 8. cuspidata
than to S. pentandra, and Koch (Synopsis, l. c.) pronounces
it a variety of S. cuspidata with the calyx-scales and
* The tree, at least, usually called so with us, and figured as S. fragilis
in English Botany, t. 1807. Schultz (Z. c.) characterizes S. cuspidata,
“ foliis subtus glaucescentibus,” and S. fragilis, “ foliis concoloribus.”