Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/248

 226 HYBRIDITY IN SALIX, AND GROWTH OF WILLOWS FROM SEED.

determiuationem varietatum et levium formarurn pro hybridis, qua laxa specie! idea celata, indeque saepe ignorantise refugiura.' Thus it appears that at the date of the ' Coutiuuatio Florse Suecicse,' 1832-1842, Prof. Fries did not regard with favour the view that slight differences between closel}' allied Willows are due to hybrid intermixture. This does not, however, indicate what Prof. Fries' opinion is as to the growth of Willows from seed.

Turning now to another quarter, it is not a little remarkable how positive in the affirmative was the language of the late Sir J. E, Smith, first, that Willows do grow readily from seed; and secondly, that the seedlings were always true to their kinds. Speaking of Mr. Crowe's garden, Eng. Fl. vol. iv. p. 164, he says, "Seedlings innumerable springing up all over the ground, were never destroyed till their species were determined and the immutability of each verified by our joint in- spection. This was the more material to set aside the gratuitous suppo- sition of the mixture of species, or the production of new or hybrid ones, of which, no more than of any change in established species, I have never met with an instance." Such statements from such a quarter must demand the utmost attention. Perhaps the seedlings, as they sprang up, were removed to beds prepared for them, otherwise one cannot but be struck by the practical difficulty of keeping the ground clear of weeds without destroying the young plants. Two years' growth, at the very least, would be required before the species of the seedlings could be determined, and in that time, unless the seedlings were transplanted, which is not stated, the Willow ground must have been in great danger of becoming a wilder- ness.

On the same subject, Reichenbach, Fl. Excursoria, p. 173, remarks " absque dubio specierum enumeratarum quaedam hybridae." Wishing to ascertain the opinions of competent persons, I have consulted some of my friends who have bestowed much attention upon this tribe. The Eev. L. Darwall, who has long cultivated Willows, observes, " Amongst seedlings I have never found any but S. caprea and 5. aqiiatica (including, perhaps, S. cinerea and S. oleifolia), though I have both sexes of many other species. With this the opinion of my friend Mr. James Ward, who has specially studied the Willows for a long series of years, substan- tially coincides. Prof. Balfour tells me that they have tried, without success, to raise willows from seed in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. To come now to my own experience ; excepting S. cap-ea, I do not ever remember to have met with a Willow where it looked like a seedling, and this was in the shrubbery at Audley End, Essex, where the plant might have been inserted as a cutting by some one of the gardeners. 1 have myself cultivated the Willows somewhat extensively since the year 1838. First in the nursery garden at Audley End for about five years, then in the Rectory Gardens at Bishopwearmouth, in the county of Durham, for say about four years, and for a year more in a garden in the neighbourhood of the town of Sunderland, lastly, for fully twenty-one years at Cress- well. For the last twenty-one years the plants, some of them now trees, have been growing under my own eyes, great care being taken to keep them properly labelled, which is no easy matter. In all that time I have never seen a single seedling, though my collection comprises fully one hundred forms. It is, T admit, barely possible that seedlings may have sprung up, and been destroyed in keeping down weeds, but if so, I cannot

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