THE TOPLAJR AND THE WILLOW. 109 



and most unsociable tree which is everywhere seen 

 towering aloft in suburban gardens, or forming a 

 kind of colonnade in the hedgerow. Yet this is 

 only one out of many kinds of poplars, and neither 

 the most important kind nor, strange to say, of 

 the same antiquity as the others. The " Lombardy 

 poplar," by which name this spire-shaped one 

 should always be called, is only a variety of the 

 good old-fashioned " Black." Like the spire- 

 shaped variety of the common yew, and the 

 similar -variety of the furze-bush, it is a sport of 

 nature in comparatively recent times, showing over 

 again, how full alike of play and flexibility is that 

 beautiful old " spirit of the woods " which the 

 ancient poets half-deified, converting the trees into 

 a sisterhood of dryads. Though by no means a 

 pleasing object when standing alone, the Lom- 

 bardy poplar, judiciously intermingled with other 

 trees, gives an air that no other so well supplies, 

 conferring upon the grove that same beautiful 

 addition which is given to the view of a distant 

 city by its towers and spires. Contrasts lie at 

 the heart of all our enjoyments, and it is only by 

 such intermixtures of umbrageousness and slender 

 loftiness that the beau ideal of sylvan charm is 

 originated in wood and forest. 



The poplars, botanically so called, comprise not 

 only this common spire-like tree and its widely- 

 branching parent, the " Old English black," but 



