Mobberley. 97 



found in the lime, (p. 6,) but in the lime the two curves 

 of the base spring from the same point. Early in spring 

 the leafless twigs of every tree are loaded with little clus- 

 ters of flowers that make them seem knotted; and in 

 May these are followed by flat green fruits, as repre- 

 sented in fig. 14. Mobberley possesses also some fine 

 old examples of the true British "Black Poplar," a noble 

 tree, with spreading boughs, and quite a different thing 

 from the unsightly tree commonly so called, and of which 

 there are so many hundreds about Cheadle and With- 

 ington. For poplars are not merely the spire-form trees 

 popularly understood by the name. "Poplar," like 

 " lily," is a generic name, denoting a race of branchy 

 forest-trees, the flowers of which are produced in catkins 

 of separate sexes, and developed upon separate indivi- 

 duals, like those of willows, while the scales that protect 

 the stamens are remarkably ragged along the margin. 

 The fruit, again, indicates affinity with the willows, con- 

 sisting of numerous elegant little pods, strung together 

 like a bunch of red currants, every pod bursting verti- 

 cally from the apex downwards, and discharging abund- 

 ance of cottony fleece, the component tufts of which 

 should be wings to as many distinct seeds. The seeds, 

 however, are seldom perfected, owing to the long dis- 

 tances apart at which the stamen and pistil-bearing trees 

 usually occur. There are not many species, but most of 

 them vary a good deal in aspect, producing what are 

 technically called "varieties." Hence the unpleasing 



