Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/249

 THE FLORA OF HYDE PARK AND KENSINGTON GARDENS. 227

account for their not occurring- in undisturbed parts of the garden and grounds, amongst shrubs and trees, where seedling Sycamores are frequent, and plants of the Leycesteria forniosa have several times sprung up. A few years ago I collected and sowed some seed in pots in my greenhouse, and kept them carefully watered and looked after, but the seed did not vegetate. Last year (1870) I made a more systematic attempt, both to produce hybrids and raise Willows from seed. On the 11th of last August I sowed, in three boxes filled with good compost, seeds of the following kinds : — S. Forsteriana from Borrer ; S. Anderso7iiana, Borrer ; S. Do)iiana, Borrer ; S. Sinithiana, E. Bot. -S'. Sm'itluana growing in the middle of a large bush of a monandrous Willow allied to S. Lam- bertlana, Sm. I also carefully tied a bunch of the male catkins of S. daphnoides, VilL, to a branch of a female of ^S". pomeranlca, W., dusting the stigmas at the same time with the pollen. In a similar manner I endeavoured to fertilize the female of S. stipulmis, Sm., with the pollen of the male of S. rugosa, Borrer ; also the female of S. Pontedei'aiia, Sell., with the catkins of a beautiful Willow gathered near Rothbury in Northumberland, which I take to be the male of that species. The third box was filled with seed of difi'erent forms of S. repetis, L., including, probably, S. amhigna, Ehrli., sent to me by a friend from Horncastle in Lincolnshire. On all those branches, the catkins of which I endeavoured to fertilize artificially, seed was produced in abundance. The boxes were carefully watered all through the summer, and in winter were placed in a cold frame. I have examined them constantly up to the present time, and at first thought that some of the seeds springing up in them would prove to be Willows, but in this hope I have been disappointed, and now fear that the experiment has again been a failure. Last year the seed of the Willows was more copiously produced than usual, and becanu; rather an annoyance in the beds and walks, but I have not seen a seedling any- where. Although, then, I dare not say that Willows are never produced from seed, I think it is clear that this happens less frequently than is commonly supposed. My garden is about a mile and a half from the sea, and rather exposed to the north and north-west; but the soil is good (old grass land), and most of the Willows grow freely in it. I have lost far more kinds from crowding than from climate.

Having thus failed myself, I would invite the remarks and co-operation of others who, in more favourable and southern situations, may be more successful than I have been ill raising Willows from seed.

��THE FLORA OF HYUE PARK AND KENSINGTON GARDENS.

By Hon. J. L. Warren, M.A.

This paper will not interest botanists to whom the rarity of a plant is its main recommendation. We deal here with our common and widely- diffused species. We endeavour by a contrast of records, new and old, to show the surprising permanence of many species, even in the midst of the smoke and other hostile influences of a great city. We remind the town-botanist, whom want of time and cash will not allow many country excursions, that a fair section of his native flora mav be seen at his very

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