1654 ARBOBEYLUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART lL 
The bark of the old trunk, being very thick, light, and corky, is employed by 
fishermen to support their nets, and, it is said, is used as corks for bottles. 
The buds, macerated in boiling water, and afterwards bruised in a mortar 
and pressed, yield a fat substance, which burns like wax, and exhales a fine 
odour. The balsamic sap with which the buds are covered forms the basis of 
what Gerard calls that “ profitable ointment, unguentum populeum, which is used 
as a soothing remedy against nervous diseases and hemeroides.” The young - 
shoots, especially when the plants are kept low, may be used as a substitute 
for those of the willow, in basket-making. When the tree is pollarded, and 
lopped every three or four years, it produces a great quantity of fuel, which 
can be used green. The shoots, with the leaves on, are formed into brooms. 
The cottony substance, or flock, which surrounds the seeds, has been used, 
in Germany and in France, as wadding; and it has also been manufactured 
into cloth, hats, and paper; but the expense of collecting it, and the want 
of length and elasticity in the fibre, occasioned the manufacture to be given 
up. In Kamtschatka, and in Norway, the inhabitants are sometimes under 
the necessity of drying the inner bark, and grinding it, in order to mix it 
with their oatmeal, (See Laing’s Norway.) The flowers are much sought 
after by bees. In landscape-gardening, the tree is valuable for particular 
purposes, on account of the rapidity of its growth, the great bulk of its head, 
and the striking effect of its dark red flowers in early spring; but it is unfit 
for grounds which are not of considerable extent, unless when treated as a 
pollard or dwarf. 
Poetical and mythological Allusions, | According to Ovid, when Phaethon 
borrowed the chariot and horses of the sun, and by his heedless driving set 
half the world on fire, he was hurled from the chariot by Jupiter into the Po, ° 
where he was drowned ; and his sisters, the Heliades, wandering on the banks 
of the river, were changed into trees; but, whether these trees were poplars 
or alders, the poets do not seem to be agreed. The evidence in favour of the 
poplar consists in there being abundance of black poplars on the banks of 
the Po; in the poplar, in common with many other aquatic trees, being 
so surcharged with moisture as to have it exude through the pores of the 
leaves, which may thus literally be said to weep; and in there being no 
tree on which the sun shines more brightly than on the black poplar, thus 
still showing gleams of parental affection to the only memorial left of the 
unhappy son whom his fondness had contributed to destroy. 
** And eke those trees, in whose transformed hue, 
The Sun’s sad daughters wailed the rash decay 
Of Phaethon, whose limbs with lightnings rent, 
They gathering up, with sweet tears did lament.” SPENSER. 
The quivering of the leaves of the black poplar, and the manner in which 
the sun dances on their smooth surfaces, have made them afford to the 
poets joyous images, of activity and beauty. Homer, speaking of Penelope’s 
handmaids, says : — 
** Some ply the loom; their busy fingers move 
Like poplar leaves when zephyr fans the grove.” Popr’s Odyssey, book vii. 
And a Spanish poet compares the tree to his lady’s hair : — 
* Each wind that breathes, gallantly here and there 
Waves the fine gold of her disorder’d hair, 
As a green poplar leaf in wanton play 
Dances for joy at rosy break of day.”’ WIiFFEN’s Garcilasso. 
Soil, Situation, §c. For the tree to attain a large size, the soil ought to be 
good, though it need not be deep; more especially if it be in the immediate 
vicinity of water. In such situations, the black poplar forms a very profitable 
pollard tree; and it is often so planted and treated in France and Italy, for 
the purpose of affording props for vines. It is readily propagated by cuttings 
or truncheons. : 
Insects, Diseases, §c. The black poplar is famous among naturalists for 
