194 ^/^^ Journal of Forestry. 



if you follow the pavement along from " The Plough," where the cars and 

 omnibuses stop, before you have gone a hundred yards you will see it straight 

 before you, in the centre of the main walk, which it divides into two of lesser 

 width. It is environed with a wooden bench and back-frame, as a resting- 

 place for pedestrian visitors, which may afford comforta])le sitting room for 

 perhaps twenty people at a time, and it is much resorted to for shade, 

 repose, or shelter by the wayfarers who loiter near. This tree appears to 

 be still in a good sound state, though heavily carbuncled about its base, 

 where it is, perhaps, over twenty feet in circumference, with its deep 

 channelled bark, like tangled cables, and possibly, if its massive branches 

 be taken into account, the whole fabric may contain six or seven loads of 

 timber, but not more, I imagine, roughly estimating it as a passer-by. 



There are also several fine sound abeles of a good size round about, 

 such as those westward of the church (which is seen in a quadrangle, chiefly 

 of noble elms) a little farther along. These are all crippled aloft, but 

 bear themselves grandly in their fallen estate, and the humiliation of 

 being ap-/;ro7>riated (literally) by the laundresses of the neighbourhood, who 

 use them as colossal clothes props ; and we contemplate them with that 

 sort of feeling which inspires us when we see a venerable castellated ruin 

 taken possession of by an unappreciatiug shepherd as a pen for his flock. 



On the east side of the Long pond, which is a\vay to the left, are two good 

 sound trees of this kind still in healthy and undamaged growth, perhaps 

 nine or ten feet in circumference, at a height of fifteen or twenty feet 

 from the ground. In short, the arboriculturist, not too remote, who 

 desires to enlarge his knowledge of the poplar tribe — and many other 

 forest trees as well — may spend a few contemplative hours on Clapham 

 Common with considerable advantage, as he will find there many varieties 

 in all stages of growth, vigour, and decay. 



Two old trees of the Lombardy species towards the Balham end of the 

 common, and not far apart, afford in themselves a curious study. Both 

 are broken short off, at some twenty feet or more from the ground 

 and in this state their trunks have rotted tvithin while putting forth 

 vigorous branches from wiihout, and these have again shot up skywards, 

 to the height and size of stalwart young trees, like prodigals deter- 

 mined to enjoy the present hour, whatever becomes of their poor old 

 parent, whom they are starving. Neither of these wrecks, which may 

 girth fourteen or fifteen feet, has any pretension to the circular in form 

 at the base. They seem to have thrown out natural buttresses below, 

 in order the better to resist the elements above ; and on this account, 

 perhaps, when oppressed with their top-weight, the wind might break them 

 off, but could not overturn them. 



In your first number it is stated that the black Italian poplar was 

 originally brought into this country in 1772, the Lombardy perhaps a 

 trifle earlier. Therefore, if that date be correct, these acciiUiital 

 pollards, which are of that species, could not be more than about a 

 hundred years old, no great age for a large tree to exhibit itself in 

 the last stage of existence. Possibly their decrepitude may have been 



