100 BEAUTIES 0FBBIT18H TBEES. [I^ec, 



that it is just these minor and physiologically unimportant 

 characters that are the least subject to variation, and are, therefore, 

 the most trustworthy means of discriminating allied forms. 



In autumn all the Poplars have a nearly equal charm. Late in 

 their Spring frondescence, they are late also in losing their leaves. 

 These cling through the equinoctial gales of October, and are often 

 seen bright with an almost spotlessly clear lemon-yellow, or variegated, 

 perchance, with a green clearer than any hue they have hitherto worn, 

 in the fitful sunshine of St. Luke's summer, or of that autumnal after- 

 glow that sometimes marks the latter half of the month. 



For its spreading boughs bearing delicately-poised broad plates, 

 now of gi'een and grey, and now of this clear gold, the Grey Poplar is 

 well worthy of a place with the Abele^ and Aspens by the water-side, 

 on the tree-grown islet in the lake, or in the ^^elt of trees beyond the 

 shrubbery. 



The Black Poplar (P. nigra), and its ' fastigiate ' variety, the 

 Lombardy , belong to the second section of the genus A igciros, charac 

 terised by the smoothness of the young shoots, the stamens being 

 generally more than twelve and often as many as thirty in a single 

 male flower, and the stigmas short, wedge-shaped, and deeply two- 

 cleft. The former is a rapid-growing tree, reaching fifty or sixty 

 feet in height, with a straight stem, spreading branches, grey bark, 

 and a soft spongy white wood, which is used for charcoal and for 

 ornamental carving. The bark also is useful for tanning, so that it 

 is a tree that it may be sometimes remunerative to plant for profit ; 

 but, like most rapid-growing, soft-wooded trees it does] not live 

 long. It grows in moist situations ; but is, perhaps, not truly a 

 native of Great Britain. Its buds are smooth but sticky, and its 

 large leaves, on slender petioles, compressed like those of the Aspen, 

 taper to a point, are finely toothed at their edges with rounded 

 serrations, and are at first silky on their under surfaces and margins, 

 but become ultimately smooth and almost uniform in colour above 

 and below. It is this absence of grey hairiness on the leaves that 

 has earned for the tree its inappropriate name of 'Black,' as opposed 

 to the White and the Grey Poplars. It has no suckers, a fact which 

 may recommend it for planting near lawns, or in other situations 

 where they might well be objectionable. In this respect it differs 

 remarkably from the Lombardy Poplar (P. fastigiata), which is, how- 

 ever, generally considered by botanists to be a variety of it, though 

 no doubt a more permanent and vfell-raarked form than is the Irish 

 or Enniskillen Yew, as compared with our common Yew. 



The Lombardy Poplar is believed to be a native of the mountains 

 of Western and Northern Asia, and was only introduced from Italy to 

 England in 1758 ; but the artistic use of its * fastigiate ' spires, its 



