1668 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
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was dry and dusty, while it was quite otherwise with the line of a few Lom- 
bardy poplars; for from them it rained so plentifully, and so fast, that any 
one of them might have been used as an admirable shower-bath, and the con- 
stant stream of water supplied by the aggregate would (properly directed) have 
sufficed to turn an ordinary mill.” (Jag. Nat. Hist., vol. iv. p. 34.) 
In British nurseries, hedges for shelter are frequently formed of the Lom- 
bardy poplar; in which case they are cut over at a certain height, and regularly 
cut in on each side, so as to form a verdant wall, 8 ft. or 10 ft. high, 18in. 
wide at bottom, and 6 in. wide at top. It is an excellent tree for sheltering 
or shading either fields or gardens in a flat country; but care must be taken 
to plant it at a sufficient distance; and, where shelter is wanted without shade, 
not to introduce it on the south side of any garden or orchard, unless at a 
distance of at least twice its ordinary height. 
The Lombardy poplar, when Gilpin wrote his Forest Scenery, which was 
previously to 1780, had been only seen by that agreeable writer as a young 
tree. ‘“ Within these few years,” he says, “ the Lombardy poplar, which graces 
the banks of the Po, has been much introduced in English plantations. It 
seems to like a British soil, and its youth is promising ; but I have uever seen 
it in full maturity. Its conic form, as a deciduous tree, is peculiar. Among 
evergreens, we find the same character in the cypress; and both trees, in many 
situations, have a good effect. The cypress, often, among the ruins of ancient 
Rome, breaks the regularity of a wall or a pediment, by its conic form: and 
the poplar on the banks of the Po, no doubt, has the same effect among its 
deciduous brethren, by forming the apex of a clump; though I have been 
told that, in its age, it loses its shape, and spreads more intoahead. The 
oldest poplars of this kind I have seen are at Blenheim. They are not old 
trees, but are very tall, and, I believe, still preserve their spiry form. One 
beauty the Italian poplar possesses, which is almost peculiar in itself; and 
that is the waving line it forms when agitated by the wind. Most trees, in 
this circumstance, are partially agitated: one side is in rest, while the other is 
in motion. But the Italian poplar waves in one simple sweep from the top 
to the bottom, like an ostrich feather on a lady’s head. All the branches 
coincide in the motion: but, in painting, I know not that I should represent 
any kind of motion in a tree, except that of a violent storm. When the blast 
continues for some time, when the black heavens are in unison with it, and 
help to tell the story, an oak straining in the wind is an object of picturesque 
beauty; but when the gentle breeze, pressing upon the quivering poplar, 
bends it only in easy motion, while a serene sky indicates the heavens to be 
at peace, there is nothing to act in concert with the motion of the tree: it 
seems to have taken its form from the influence of a sea air, or some other 
malign impression; and, exhibiting an unnatural appearance, disgusts. One 
thing more I should mention with regard to the Italian poplar ; which is, that, 
although it sometimes has a good effect when standing singly, it generally has a 
better when two or three are planted in a clump.” ( Forest Scenery, vol.i. p. 58.) 
The Lombardy poplar, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder observes, though extremely 
fatiguing to the eye when it lines the road for many miles, as it does very 
— a ae 
