THE POPLAR FAMILY. 379 



bloomers, this is the plant commonly calleil '• palm," and used by the Eoman 

 Catholics of England in their Palm-Sunday ceremonies. 



In Eome, upon Palm-Sunday, 



They bear true palms, 

 The cardinals bow reverently, 



And sing old psalms. 

 Elsewhere those psalms are sung 



Beneath the olive branches ; 

 The holly-bough supplies their place 



Amid the avalanches. 

 More northern climes must be content 



With the sad willow. 



The variation in the shape, size, and surface of the leaves of the sallow is con- 

 siderable, and many supposed species have in consequence been registered. 

 Three of these forms occur near Manchester, viz., 



The olive-leaved sallow, (Salix olecefolia, E. B. xx. 1402) ; 



The water saUow {Salix aquatica, E. B. xx. 1437) ; and 



The gi-ay sallow {Salix cinerea, E. B. xxvii. 1897). 



They grow in wet hedgerows, and by pondsides, and appear to pass insensibly 

 into one another. 



8. Eae-leaved Sallow — (^Salix aurita.) 

 Male plants : — Moist woods and thickets, in damp hedgerovrs, and 

 by pondsides, abundant. Female plants : — In similar situations, and 

 equally common. Fl. end of April and beginning of May. 



E. B. xxi. 1487. 



'9, Creeping Willow — {^Salix repens.) 

 Male plants : — Heatby and sandy places, rare. Dry spots at Bagu- 



ley, on the site of the extinguished moor ; Lindow Common, sparingly. 



Unsworth. (J. P.) Female plants : — With the males. Fl spring. 

 E. B. iii. 183. (The Manchester plant is referable perhaps rather to the 



S. argentea of E. B. xix. 1364, and to the S. prostrata of E. B. xxviii. 1959.) 



Genus POPULUS, or POPLAE-S. (Theek species.) 

 1. A tall and handsome tree, rising forty to fifty feet high, with spreading 

 branches, and smooth, light-gray or ash-coloured bark, the young shoots 

 covered with white and cottony down. Leaves petiolate, in outline 

 roundish, heart-shaped, or ti-iangular, but so deeply toothed on each side 

 as to be almost three-lobed ; the upper surface very dark and rather 

 glossy green, and glabrous; the under surface closely covered, like the 

 young shoots, with cottony down, which renders it remai'kably white. 

 Catkins large, sessile, pendulous, two to three inches long; the male 

 ones with about eight stamens under each of the jagged and hairy scales; 

 the females with four stigmas, the lobes of which are Hnear. Numerous 

 suckers usually arise from the base of the trunk, and the leaves are 

 generally fluttering. (Fig. 195) White Poplar. 



