CATKIN-BEAKING TRIBE 171 



maj'^ be seen towering above the other trees, attaining the greatest luxuriance 

 where the soil is moist. In many places it is planted for the contrast afforded 

 by its dark-green foliage, varied with the white under surface ; and having 

 the old Dutch name of Abele, it was probably brought into this country from 

 Holland. It is of very rapid growth, making, in favourable situations, shoots 

 three inches in diameter, and sixteen feet long, in a single season ; and is 

 sometimes eighty or ninety feet high. Bailey has referred to the tall Poplars 

 which overtop their leafy companions :— 



' ' The black yew hedge, like a beleaguering host, 

 Round some fair garden province ; here and there 

 The cloud-like laurel-clumps sleep soft and fast, 

 Pillow'd by their own sha,dows ; and beyond, 

 The ripe and ruildy fruitage ; the sharp firs 

 Fringe like an eyelash on the faint blue west ; 

 The oaks which spread their broad arms to the wind, 

 And bid storms come and welcome — there they stand, 

 To whom a summer passes like a smile ; 

 O'er all, the giant Poplars, which maintain 

 Equality witli clouds half-way up heaven, 

 "Which whisper with the winds none else can see, 

 And bow to angels as they wing by them." 



In April we may see the fertile catkins of this Poplar, which are about 

 three inches long, and the shorter barren ones appear soon after. In a few 

 weeks the seeds ripen, and they with their cottony tufts lie scattered around 

 the tree, accounting for the Arab name of the White Poplar, Shairat-al-hak 

 (the Gnat, or Fly-tree). The young shoots of this Poplar have a purplish 

 tinge, and are thickly invested with the downy covering ; and the full-grown 

 leaves are on footstalks, about an inch long, and, when old, sometimes smooth 

 on both sides. 



The characteristic name of White Poplar, referring to the hue both of 

 the seed-tufts and the leaves, has its synonym in various parts of the world. 

 In France, the tree is called Blanc de Hollmule, and FeujjUer hlaiic ; and in 

 Germany, fFeisse Pappel, Silber PappeJ, Weisseaape, and JFeissalber Baiim ; 

 while it is the Aheel-hoom of the Dutch, from which latter name our Abele is 

 probably derived. Large numbers of these trees grow on the borders of the 

 Tigris and Euphrates, and some commentators have thought this Poplar to 

 be the Abeel-shittim of Scripture, from which the shittim-wood was obtained. ' 

 There is good reason, however, for believing that this was the wood of the 

 Acacia seyel, a plant fragrant enough to be suitably associated with the other 

 odoriferous shrubs in that glorious promise yet to be fulfilled, when God 

 has declared that He will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah, the 

 myrtle, and the oil-tree. Dr. Royle thinks that oiu- White Poplar is, in all 

 prol^ability, the plant referred to by the Prophet Hosea, when he says, 

 "They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the 

 hills under oaks and Poplars." The Septuagint renders the latter " White 

 Poplars," and our Abele is a common tree in manj^ of the countries mentioned 

 in Scripture history. Belon remarked that the White and Black Poplars, 

 with some fruit-l)earing trees, render the plain of Damascus like a forest ; 

 while the white species is frequent aboit Aleppo and Tripoli, and is still 



