186 SALICACEiE. [part i. 



Poplar, the leaves are also downy beneath ; but 

 they are roundish, and the female flower has 

 eight stigmas instead of four. The Aspen (P. 

 tremula) has four stigmas, with two leafy appen- 

 dages at the base, which look like two other 

 stigmas ; and the petioles of the leaves, which 

 are very long, are flattened, and so attached 

 to the stem as to be twisted by the weight 

 of the leaf when acted upon by the wind, 

 which gives them their tremulous motion : these 

 leaves are smooth on both sides. All these 

 species have spreading roots, and send up a great 

 many suckers; and their wood is used for 

 butchers'* trays, pattens, bowls, milk-pails, and 

 various other purposes. Populus nigra^ the Black 

 English Poplar, on the contrary, does not send 

 up suckers, and its wood is of very little use ; 

 it is, however, very ornamental from the large 

 size and great number of its male catkins, and 

 the bracts of the flowers being of a brownish 

 red, which gives them, when fallen, the appear- 

 ance of the large brownish-red caterpillars of 

 the Goat-moth. The Black Italian Poplar (P. 

 monilifera) is remarkable for the quickness of 

 its growth. The capsules of the female trees 

 contain such a quantity of down attached to the 

 seeds, as to render it quite unpleasant to walk 

 under them when they are ripe. The Lombardy 

 Poplar (P. fastigiata or dilatata) is remarkable 



