388 



POP 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



POP 



a foot and half in length. Plant them ten inches or a foot 

 in the ground, in rows two feet and a naif or a yard asunder, 

 and a toot or eighteen inches from each other. Look over 

 the plants in summer, to nip off all side-shoots. In two 

 years they may be planted out, if they are for small woods 

 or spinneys, in boggy or watery grounds. If they are for 

 standards, they may remain in the nursery another year ; 

 and when planted out will be worth, in twenty or thirty years, 

 as many shillings each. To form a coppice of these trees, 

 if the land be not so boggy but that it may be ploughed, a 

 crop of oats or other grain may be got off it the year preced- 

 ing the planting, and in the autumn it should be ploughed 

 again. Let two-year old plants from the nursery be planted 

 one yard asunder. Hoe down the weeds the first year, 

 afterwards they will require no further trouble till the time 

 of cutting, which may be in seven years ; and every four or 

 five years after they may be cut for poles, fire-wood, &c. 

 By these means boggy and marshy land will often produce 

 more than the best pasture. If the ground will not admit 

 of ploughing and sowing, the plants must be set in holes at 

 the same distance. For timber-trees they may also be planted 

 a yard asunder, and when the heads begin to interfere, every 

 other tree may be taken away, or the weakest and least 

 thriving removed; thus continuing to thin them as often as 

 necessary. After they are finally planted out, never strip 

 them up, nor take off any side-branches. 



2. Populus Tremula; Aspen, or Trembling Poplar Tree. 

 Leaves roundish, tooth-angular, smooth on both sides ; foot- 

 stalks compressed; young branches hairy; stigmas four, 

 auricled at the base. This tree causes a great litter in the 

 spring, when their catkins and down fall off; and their 

 roots being very apt to produce a large quantity of suckers, 

 especially those trees which came from suckers, they are 

 unfit to be planted near a house or garden ; but when inter- 

 spersed with other trees in large plantations, they afford an 

 agreeable variety, the leaves being very white on their under 

 sides, which, when blown with the wind, are turned to sight. 

 This tree derives its name from the German Espe, which is 

 their generic name for Poplars. The trembling of the leaves 

 is proverbial ; and the Scotch Highlanders account for it by 

 saying, that our blessed Lord's cross was made of this tree, 

 and therefore the leaves can never rest. This tree is of 

 speedy growth, and will thrive in any situation or soil, but 

 worst in clay. It impoverishes the land: its leaves destroy 

 the grass ; and the numerous shoots of the roots spread so 

 near the surface, that they will not permit any thing else to 

 grow. The wood is extremely light, white, smooth, soft, 

 and durable in the air. Pannels or packsaddles, milk-pails, 

 clogs, pattens, &c. are made of the wood. The leaves and leaf- 

 stalks are sometimes set with red glandular substances, about 

 the size of a pea, which contain an insect called Tipula Juni- 

 perma. Native of Europe, from Sweden to Italy, in moist 

 woods and in boggy ground ; flowering in March. A consi- 

 derable advantage may be obtained by planting this, and 

 indeed all the trees of this genus, upon moist boggy soils, 

 where few others would thrive. Many such places there are 

 in England, which do not at present bring much money to 

 their owners, yet if planted with these trees, would in a very 

 few years overpurchase the ground clear of all expense : but 

 there are many persons who think nothing except corn worth 

 cultivating, or if they plant timber, will have it Oak, Ash, 

 or Elm ; and should their land not be proper for any of these, 

 it is deemed of little or no value : whereas if the nature of 

 the soil were ascertained, and proper sorts of plants adapted 

 to it, there might be a very great advantage made of many 

 hirge tracts of land which now lie wholly neglected. 



3. Populus Nigra; Black Poplar Tree. Leaves smooth 

 on both sides, acuminate, serrate, deltoid, the longitudinal 

 diameter longer ; catkins cylindrical, lax ; stigmas four. The 

 trunk is naked and lofty, covered with an ash-coloured bark. 

 It is a quick-growing tree, and on the banks of rivers, and 

 in moist situations, throwing out numberless suckers from 

 the roots. It loves a moist black soil, and bears cropping 

 well. The bark being light like cork, serves to support the 

 nets of fishermen. The wood is not apt to splinter; it is 

 light and soft, and sometimes used by turners : it will make 

 useful rafters, poles, and rails, and in a suitable soil brings 

 in a quick return. It is so excellent for flooring boards, that 

 it is much used for the purposes of deal in some of the mid- 

 land counties. This wood is so slow in taking fire, that the 

 flames in a building on fire are said to have been stopped 

 where this timber had been used. Hence it is bad wood for 

 fuel ; but, like all other Poplar wood, very suitable for pack- 

 ing-cases. In Italy this tree is trimmed for the vines to run 

 on. They poll or head the trees every second year, sparing 

 the middle straight and most thriving shoot, and at the third 

 year cut that off also. The shade of this tree is very whole- 

 some in summer; but it does not become walks and avenues, 

 by reason of the suckers, and because it fouls the ground at 

 the fall of the leaf. It should be planted in woods, and to 

 flank places at distance, by its increasing thickness, as well 

 as for the glittering brightness of the foliage. The young- 

 leaves are an excellent ingredient in poultices for hard and 

 painful swellings. The buds of both this and the White 

 Poplar smell very pleasantly in the spring, and, being pressed 

 between the fingers, yield a balsamic resinous substance, 

 which, extracted by spirits of wine, smells like storax. A 

 drachm of this tincture in broth, is administered in internal 

 ulcers and excoriations, and is said to have removed obstinate 

 fluxes proceeding from an excoriation of the intestines. It is 

 a native of Europe, from Sweden to Italy, near rivers, and in 

 moist woods ; flowering in March. In the celebrated district 

 of Wase in Flanders, the whole of which is distributed into 

 small inclosures not more than an acre and half in extent, 

 great quantities of White and Black Poplars are planted in 

 the hedge-rows, sixteen or eighteen feet asunder : they are 

 not suffered to grow to any great size, but are cut down every 

 twenty or four-and-twenty years, and replaced by young 

 plants of the same sort ; the largest trees are always cut 

 down, to prevent the land from being too much shaded. Fifty 

 trees are allowed to an acre, and they are generally sold for 

 seven or eight florins apiece, for making wooden shoes, of 

 which they not only send a prodigious quantity into other 

 provinces, but also supply all Holland with them. This 

 species is not so apt to take root from large truncheons ; 

 therefore it is the better method to plant cuttings about a 

 foot and half in length, thrusting them a foot deep into the 

 ground. These cuttings will take root very freely, and may 

 be afterward transplanted where they are to remain. This 

 sort will grow upon almost any soil, but will thrive best in 

 moist places. 



4. Populus Dilatata; Lombardy, or Po, Poplar Tree. 

 Leaves smooth on both sides, acuminate, serrate, deltoid, 

 the transverse diameter longer. This differs from the pre- 

 ceding chiefly in its close conical manner of growth. One 

 beauty it possesses is almost peculiar to it, which is, the 

 waving line it forms, when agitated by the wind : in most 

 trees one side is at rest while the other is in motion, but 

 this waves in one simple sweep from the top to the bottom, 

 like an ostrich feather on the head of a coquette. All the 

 branches coincide in the motion ; and the least blast makes 

 an impression on it, when other trees are at rest. Its pecu- 



