The Distribution and Origin of Salix in South Africa

Abstract

Within the region included in the Union of South Africa there are ten species or varieties of Salix. Of these only four occur in the Transvaal; in describing them for my Handbook to the Transvaal Flora it was found necessary to study the Cape species, with which ours have been confused. History of the Species. In 1794 Thunberg identified and diagnosed (1) three species, two of which (S. mucronata Thun. from the Tulbagh Division, and S. hirsuta Thun. without precise locality) he named as new; the third he referred to S. aegyptiaca L. In 1807 he described (2) a fourth species, S. capensis Thun. from the Hantamberg, Calvinia Division. On Sept. 16th, 1811, Burchell discovered the beautiful Gariep Willow, S. capensis var. gariepina Anderss., on the Gariep or Orange River, in what is now the Prieska Division of the Cape Province; this he published in 1822 (14) under the name S. gariepina Burch. In 1839 Drege re-collected Thunberg's and Burchell's species and added the plant later named S. hirsuta var. parvifolia Skan. In 1839 Krauss found a species in Natal which afterwards received the nomen nudum S. natalensis Wimmer (published as a synonym in 1867). In 1841, soon after the Great Trek of the Dutch from the Cape, northward, Burke and Zeyher, while collecting antelopes for the Earl of Derby, found a Salix on the banks of the Magalies River, in what is now the Pretoria District of the Transvaal; this received the MS. name S. Zeyheri Sonder (published as a synonym in 1856). In 1860 Cooper collected in the Eastern Province of the Cape the form of Thunberg's S. mutcronata which is here named var. caffra.