‘ 
CHAP, CIII. ' SALICA CE. PO/PULUS. 1639 
of Leuké, given to this species by Dioscorides, is still used among the modern Greeks. (See Smith 
Prod., Sibth. Fl. Greca.) The great white Poplar, great Aspen, Dutch Beech; Peuplier blanc, 
Ypréau, Blane de Hollande, France Picard, Fr.; Aubo, or Aoubero, in some provinces; weisse 
Pappel, Silber Pappel, weisse Aspe, Weissalber Baum, Ger. ; Abeelboom, Dutch. 
Derivation. The specific name of White applies to the under surface of the leaves, which, when 
quivering in the wind, give the tree a peculiarly white appearance. The English name of Abele 
is derived from the Dutch name of the tree, Abeel; and this name is supposed by some to be taken 
from that of the city of Arbela, in the plains of Nineveh, near which, on the banks of the Tigris 
and Euphrates, great numbers of these trees grew. It is said to be the same tree as that mentioned 
in the Bible as Abel-shittim, Chittim, Shittim-wood, and Kittim. The Dutch Beech is an old 
name, given to this tree, as we are informed by Hartlib, in his Compleat Husbandman (1659), on 
account of ten thousand trees of it having been brought over all at once from Flanders, and planted 
in the country places’; where the people, not knowing what they were, called them Dutch beech 
trees. The French name of Ypréau alludes to the tree being found in great abundance near the 
town of Ypres. 
Engravings. Eng. Bot., t.1618.; Ger. Em., 1488.; Bauh. Hist., 1. p.160.; Matth. yeiee 1. p. 123. 
fig. ; Cam. Epit., 65. fig. ; Dod. Pempt., 835. fig. ; Dalech. Hist., 86. fig. ; Hayne Abbild.,t. 202. ; 
our fig. 1507. : and the plate of this tree in our last Volume. $ 
The Sexes. Both sexes are described in the English Flora, and are not unfrequent in plantations 
Trees of both are in the Horticultural Society’s Garden. 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves lobed and toothed ; some- 
what heart-shaped at the base; snow-white, and 
densely downy beneath. Catkins of the female 
plant ovate. Stigmas 4. (Smith Eng. Fi.) 
Root creeping, and producing numerous suckers. 
Branches very white, and densely downy when 
young. Leaves angular, and generally with three 
principal lobes, variously and unequally toothed, 
blunt-pointed, veiny; dark green and smooth 
above, and covered with a thick remarkably white 
down beneath. The leaves vary very much in 
form; and on young luxuriant branches they are 
almost palmate. The tree is a native of most 
parts of Europe, and is usually found in woods or thickets, in rather. moist 
soil. It grows to the height of 80 ft. or 90 ft., and flowers in March. 
Varieties. These are numerous, but the principal one, P. (a.) canéscens, 
being generally considered as a species, we shall first give it as such; 
and next enumerate the varieties which belong to it and to P. alba. 
¥ 2. P.(a.) cane’scens Smith. The grey, or common white, Poplar. 
Identification. Smith Fl. Brit., p. 1080.; Eng. Bot., t. 1619.; Eng. FL, 4. p. 243.; Willd. Sp. PL, 
4. p. 802.; Michx. North Amer. Sylva, a P- 245, t. 100. 
Synonymes. P. Alba Mill. Dict., ed. 8., No. 1., Willd. Arb., 227.; P. alba fdliis minéribus Raié 
Syn., 446., Ger. Em., 148. fig., Lob. Ic., 2. 193. fig.; P. 4lba folio mindre Bauk. Hist.,v. 1. p. 2. 
_ 160. fig.; P. No. 1634. 6 Hail. Hist., 2. 303. ; Peuplier grisaille, Fr. 
The Sexes. Only the female plant is expressly described in the English Flora. The plant in the 
Horticultural Society's Garden is the male. 
Engravings. Eng. Bot., t. 1619.; Michx. North Amer. Sylva, t. 100.; Hayne Abbild., t. 201.; N, 
u Ham., 2. fig. 52., as P. alba; and our fig. 1508. 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves roundish, deeply waved, toothed ; hoary and downy 
beneath. Catkins of the female plant cylindrical. Stigmas 8. (Smith mn 
Eng. Fi.) It is essentially distinguished from P. alba, as Mr. Crowe first 
discovered, by the stigmas, which are 8, spreading in two opposite di- 
rections. The bracteas of the fertile flowers are, also, more deeply and re- 
gularly cut. The branches are more upright and compact. The leaves are 
‘rounder, more conspicuously 3-ribbed, and less deeply or acutely lobed. 
They are downy beneath ; but the down is chiefly greyish, and not so white 
or cottony as in P. alba: in some instances the leaves are glabrous. 
(Smith.) Smith has described the root as creeping as extensively as that of 
P. alba. P.canéscens is found wild in “ wet ground in England, France, and 
Germany; sometimes also on open elevated spots, where the soil is loamy.” 
oe in Rees’s Cycl.) It grows to about the same height as ?. alba, and 
owers in March. “ Mr. Crowe was very instrumental in bringing this tree 
into notice in Norfolk. ‘He observed it to be of slower growth than P. 
alba. The wood, though till lately it was but little used or distinguished, is 
much firmer than that of any other British poplar; making as good floors 
as the best Norway fir in appearance ; having, moreover, the valuable pro- 
