io8 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



The Rattling Asp is so called from the rattling sound made by its 

 tremulous leaves. On account of its bitter bark it was called Bitter- 

 weed. 



" Oak, Ash, and Elm-tree, 

 The laird can hang for a' the three; 

 But fir, saigh, and bitter-weed, 

 The laird may flyte but make naething be'et." 



Aps or Apse is the same as aspe by transposition of letters. 



Gerarde says it was called Auld-wives'-tongues because " this tree 

 is the matter whereof women's tongues were made, as the poets and 

 some others report, which seldome cease waggling". If it was laid 

 on a witch's grave the people of Russia thought she would not ride 

 abroad. It was a symbol of fear because of its tremulous leaves. 



The Aspen was a token of scandal, because its leaves, they said, 

 were made from women's tongues. When Joseph and Mary were 

 fleeing from Herod all the trees except the Aspen did homage, hence 

 it was cursed. It is reputed also to have formed the wood of the 

 Saviour's Cross. The sisters of Phaethon, bewailing his death on the 

 shores of Eridanus, were changed into poplars. 



On Midsummer Eve they fell the highest poplar in Sicily and drag 

 it through the village, beating a drum. 



Being ornamental and of quick growth it is much planted. Beavers 

 are fond of the bark. The wood is smooth, soft, but durable. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



287. Populus tremula, L. Tree, with suckers, leaves suborbicular, 

 serrate, glabrous, young leaves downy, stigma erect, petiole compressed, 

 long. 



Tway-blade (Listera ovata, Br.) 



This delicate orchid has preserved no record for us of its antiquity. 

 It is, however, an Arctic plant found in the N. Temperate and Arctic 

 regions, in Arctic Europe, and Siberia. In Great Britain it grows in 

 every county except the Isle of Man, Peebles, Shetlands, and so ranges 

 northwards to Sutherland elsewhere. It grows at 1900 ft. in N. Eng- 

 land, and in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



The Tway-blade is a common clay-loving plant, growing in open 

 fields and meadows, in moist hollows, both in upland and lowland 

 districts. It is also exceedingly abundant in damp woods, growing 

 side by side with Man Orchis, Red Campion, and other shade plants 

 in the depths of woods, copses, and plantations. Tway-blade has a 

 tall, graceful, slender stem, with fibrous root, the stem being clammy, 



