108 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 
The Rattling Asp is so called from the rattling sound made by its 
tremulous leaves. On account of its bitter bark it was called Bitter- 
weed. 
“Oak, Ash, and Elm-tree, 
The laird can hang for a’ the three; 
But fir, saigh, and bitter-weed, 
The laird may flyte but make naething be’et.” 
Aps or Apse is the same as aspe by transposition of letters. 
Gerarde says it was called Auld-wives’-tongues because “this tree 
is the matter whereof women’s tongues were made, as the poets and 
some others report, which seldome cease waggling”. If it was laid 
on a witch’s grave the people of Russia thought she would not ride 
abroad. It was a symbol of fear because of its tremulous leaves. 
The Aspen was a token of scandal, because its leaves, they said, 
were made from women’s tongues. When Joseph and Mary were 
fleeing from Herod all the trees except the Aspen did homage, hence 
it was cursed. It is reputed also to have formed the wood of the 
Saviour’s Cross. The sisters of Phaéthon, bewailing his death on the 
shores of Eridanus, were changed into poplars. 
On Midsummer Eve they fell the highest poplar in Sicily and drag 
it through the village, beating a drum. 
Being ornamental and of quick growth it is much planted. Beavers 
are fond of the bark. The wood is smooth, soft, but durable. 
ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
287. Populus tremula, L.—Tree, with suckers, leaves suborbicular, 
serrate, glabrous, young leaves downy, stigma erect, petiole compressed, 
long. 
Tway-blade (Listera ovata, Br.) 
This delicate orchid has preserved no record for us of its antiquity. 
It is, however, an Arctic plant found in the N. Temperate and Arctic 
regions, in Arctic Europe, and Siberia. In Great Britain it grows in 
every county except the Isle of Man, Peebles, Shetlands, and so ranges 
northwards to Sutherland elsewhere. It grows at 1900 ft. in N. Eng- 
land, and in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 
The Tway-blade is a common clay-loving plant, growing in open 
fields and meadows, in moist hollows, both in upland and lowland 
districts. It is also exceedingly abundant in damp woods, growing 
side by side with Man Orchis, Red Campion, and other shade plants 
in the depths of woods, copses, and plantations. Tway-blade has a 
tall, graceful, slender stem, with fibrous root, the stem being clammy, 
