842 



sgeak of the Abele as somewhat rarer in their time than our other 

 species; it is plain, however, from their figures of each, that our gray 

 and white poplar were well known and even discriminated by those 

 old herbalists. Turner, whose Herbal was published in 1568, has 

 these words, " As touching the whyte Aspe, I remember not that I 

 ever saw it in any place of England. If it be found in England, it 

 may be called a whyte Asp or a whyte Popler, because the underside 

 of the lefe is as white as any paper," (Herb, black letter edit. Cologne, 

 1568, part 2, p. 99). From this we may gather that P. alba and ca- 

 nescens must at least have been very rare when Turner wrote, which, 

 though not conclusive on the question, makes in some measure 

 against the aboriginality of these trees in Britain, for Turner was a 

 very careful observer of our native plants, and seems to have travelled 

 much over his own country as well as abroad. I do not question the 

 opinion of those botanists who receive as indigenous the white and 

 gray poplars, because my own doubts are but slight, and my expe- 

 rience probably less than theirs ; but as far as my opportunities have 

 gone, I could never perfectly satisfy myself that these trees, especially 

 the Abele, were unequivocally wild in any station in which I have 

 yet seen them in Hants or elsewhere in Britain. It has never hap- 

 pened to me to see either these or the black poplar occupying the re- 

 cesses of our marshy woods, or fringing the banks of a woodland or 

 forest stream, at great distances from the cultivated enclosed country, 

 accompanying the aspen {P. tremula) into its sylvan wildernesses. 

 On the contrary, I seldom see the Abele but along the streams and 

 ditches intersecting water-meadows, the margins of ponds, and in 

 hedgerows contiguous to houses, whilst the gray poplar wanders into 

 wet thickets, copses and hedges, keeping about the borders chiefly of 

 small woods, and open, damp, or heathy pastures, but I cannot call 

 to mind having met with either this or the Abele on any of our forest 

 bogs or streams, where it might be supposed likely to grow if they 

 were really natives to the soil. Perhaps some who read this can 

 point out such unexceptionable stations for one or both of these spe- 

 cies. Again, P. alba and canescens are very commonly planted in all 

 the places I have described; their roots creep to an amazing distance, 

 and throw up suckers in every direction from the parent trees, and in 



Poplar tree,'' with my conception of the true Abele in its most characteristic cultivated 

 form. 



