1883.] 



BE A UTIES OF BRITISH TBEES. 



99 



earlier period in the year we can note many of tlie Grey Poplars' 

 distinctive marks. 



The young shoots are downy 

 and so are the leaf-buds ; but 

 the latter are not sticky as are 

 those of the Black and Lom- 

 bardy Poplars, and, to some 

 extent, those of the Aspen. It 

 is in March, that ' roaring moon 

 of daffodil and crocus,' that the 

 catkins make their appearance ; 

 and, as with the male flowers 

 of so many trees, 



' In the wind of windy March, 



The catkins di-op down, 

 Curly, caterpillar-like, 

 Curious green and brown,' 



In these catkins the scales 

 are delicately fringed with hair, 

 and in each Hower are from six 

 to ten purple anthers ; wliilst 

 in the shorter and more per- 

 sistent female catkins that 

 have to remain on the tree 

 until the seed be ripe, each 

 flower has two wedge-shaped 

 purple stigmas divided into 

 three or four lobes. This last 

 is a distinguishing point be- 

 tween the Grey Poplar and 

 the Abele, which has its two 

 stigmas yellow and each 

 divided deeply into two seg- 

 ments which have parallel edges 

 and are not wider at one end, 

 so that they appear like the 

 arms of a cross. These may 

 seem minute points, and are 

 certainly not very practical so 

 far as ease of ready observa- 

 tion is concerned, nor can we 

 see clearly the advantage to the 

 tree of having stigmas of one poplaes. 



shape or colour or of the other; but botanists repeatedly find 



