THE POPLAR AND THE WILLOW. 107 



lord and master; therefore touches him, in its 

 phenomena, at every point. 



Not only do the poplar and the willow agree, 

 among 1 the Amentiferae, in being dioecious, and thus 

 differ from all their congeners ; their fruit also is 

 perfectly distinct from that of every other species of 

 the family, and by this alone, in the time of its ripe- 

 ness, may they be identified. While the oak, the 

 beech, and the hazel, yield some kind of acorn or 

 nut, round as an egg, or curiously angled; and 

 while the birch and the alder supply a mimic cone, 



POPLAB FLOWEES. 



imitating, afar off, the sculptured produce of the 

 pine-tree : these two, the willow and the poplar, 

 prepare clusters of little capsules, from which, as 

 soon as they burst, is discharged an immense quantity 

 of the whitest vegetable silk. Unfortunately, the 

 fibre is so short as to render it unavailable for 

 manufacturing into thread, or yarn such as would be 

 adapted to the requirements of the weaver ; in its 

 usefulness to give softness to cushions and pillows 

 it is nevertheless unequalled and unapproached. 



