198 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



cither green or dried, are emj)loycd in France, Germany, and Sweden, as food for 

 cattle, and tliis I3ose thinks one of the most valuable purposes of the tree. The 

 powdered bark, given in doses of half a pound, expels the bots and worms from the 

 stomach of horses ; and in Russia, Pallas informs us, the bark is used in domestic 

 medicine. In the Plighlands of Scotland, the bark is made into torches. 



The phrase, to "tremble like an aspen leaf," has become a household word, and is 

 as old as the poet Spenser, who says — 



*' His hand did quake 

 And tremble like a leaf of aspen green," 



And Sir Walter Scott's well-known lines I'emind us of this tree — 



O woman ! in our hours of ease, 

 Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, 

 And variable as the shade 

 By the light quivering aspen made ; 

 When pain or sickness rends the brow, 

 A ministering angel thou." 



Section II.—AIGEIROS. Duhy. 



Catkins lax in fruit, their scales not ciliated. Stamens 8 to 30. 

 Stigma with 4 short thick and often wedgeshaped segments. Young 

 branches glabrous, often shining and glutinous. 



SPECIES III.— P O P U L U S NIGRA. Linn. 

 Plate MCCCII. 

 Beicl. Ic. PL Germ, et Helv. Vol. XI. Tab. DCXIX. Fig. 1275. 



Branches spreading ; young branches glabrous, not distinctly 

 ano:ular. Buds all glabrous or subo;labrous, shinino;, viscous; flower- 

 buds oblong acuminate with the point curving outwards; leaf-buds 

 conical, acute. Leaves all deltoid or ovate-deltoid, acuminate or 

 cuspidate, finely crenate-serrate, glabrous, ciliated when young, and 

 often with a few scattered hairs on the veins, quite glabrous when old. 

 Male catkins cylindrical. Female catkins fusiform, lax in fruit. 

 Catkin-scales shortly laciniate. Capsules globular-ovoid. 



By the banks of rivers and in damp woods. Rather scarce, 

 and probably not native, except in the south of England. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Tree. Spring. 



A large tree with yellowish-grey bark and spreading branches; 

 the young ones yellowish, uneven, but not raised into sharp angles. 

 Leaves li to 5 inches long, on long compressed petioles. Male catkins 

 pendidous, 2 to 3 inches long: stamens 12 to 20 ; anthers red. Female 

 catkins 'shortly stalked, ascending and 1 to \l inch long in flower, 



