200 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Spenser says — 



" And eke those trees in whose transformed hue 

 The Sun's sad daughters wailed the rash decay 

 Of Phaeton, wliose Hmbs, with lightnings rent, 

 They gathering up, Avith sweet tears did lament," 



The quivering of the leaves of the black poplar, and the manner in which the sun 

 dances on their smooth surfaces, have suggested to poets images of activity and 

 beauty. Homer, in speaking of Penelope's handmaids, says — 



" Some ply the loom, their busy fingers move 

 Like poplar leaves, when zephyr fans the grove," 



And a Spanish poet writes — 



*' Each wind that breathes gallantly here and there, 

 Waves the fine gold of her disordered hair, 

 As a green poplar leaf in wanton play 

 Dances for joy at rosy break of day." 



The black poplar is famous among naturalists for producing a sort of gall, or pro- 

 tuberance of various shapes and sizes, on its leaves and branches, which have usually 

 been mistaken for the lodgments of worms hatched from the eggs of an ichneumon 

 fly ; but they are in reality produced from the operations of a viviparous species of 

 Aphis, for the bringing up of its offspring. These galls are of the bladder kind, 

 being usually skirmed over, and more or less hollow within, not woody, as those of 

 the oak. 



GENUS X— S A L I X. Toumef. 



Male catkins ovoid or cylindrical : catkin-scales entire ; floral- 

 scales {nectary) 2, distinct or rarely united so as to form a very 

 minute cuplike disk — or 1 on the inner side of the stamens : stamens 

 usually 2, but varying from that to 8, the 2 stamens with the fila- 

 ments sometimes so completely united as to appear but 1. Female 

 catkins oblong or cylindrical : catkin-scales entire : {nectary) as in the 

 male flower, of 2 floral-scales distinct or rarely united, or of 1 on the 

 inner side of the stalk of the ovary : disk or perianth none : ovary usually 

 stalked, 1 -celled, many-ovuled; styles short or elongate; stigmas 

 usually short, 2, entire or notched or 2 -cleft. Fruit catkm usually 

 elongated, dense or lax, with the catkin-scales deciduous or caducous. 

 Fruit a conical herbaceous or dry capsule, opening by 2 valves, and 

 containing numerous seeds clothed with long silky white hairs. 



Shrubs or trees with the leaves usually much longer than broad, 

 entire or serrate. Catkins appearing before or with the leaves, erect, 

 or more rarely drooping.* 



* In the arrangement of the British willows, I have closely followed that adopted 

 in the sixth edition of Professor Babington's "Manual of British Botany," His 



