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Read May 5, 1801.
IT has for a long time been my intention to offer to the consideration of the Linnean Society some elucidation of the British Willows; but there are many reasons why any thing like a complete hiory of of the genus of Salix cannot at present be made out, even so far as regards our native species, and I have therefore withheld the partial information I had acquired, in hopes of learning more, and being able to communicate something better worth the Society's acceptance.
At length however it becomes necessary that this obscure genus should assume as regular a form as possible in the Flora Britannica; where, as in every other instance, my object is to publish nothing that I have not ascertained myself, at least as far as the imperfection of all human knowledge and judgment will permit. The enumeration therefore of the species of Salix in that book, though more comprehensive than any yet published in Britain, will be but an essay, to be perfected hereafter; and what I have to offer in this paper are various matters collected in the course of my inquiries, which require a more diffuse explanation than the systematic form of the work just mentioned will admit. I shall at present confine my observations to the arborescent species of the first section of the genus Salix, which comprehends such as have leaves more or less serrated, and nearly smooth, at least when fully formed. This is the
