250 BETULACEJE. 



The latter has triangular leaves, of a light green, and long lax 

 catkins. 



The Grey Poplar (P. canescens), has roundish-waved leaves, 

 and its branches are more upright than those of the White 

 Poplar, which it otherwise resembles. I have no specimen of it. 



The Aspen, or Trembling Poplar (P. tremula), grows near 

 Frome in Somerset, and I have a specimen from thence. It 

 is a lofty conical tree, and its leaves are always quivering. 

 There is a beautiful, though of course fabulous, legend re- 

 garding this tree, which is well expressed in a poem signed 

 "F. C. W.," published in "Chambers' Journal." The story 

 relates that at our Saviour's death all the trees bowed their 

 heads with one exception : 



" But one tree was in the forest 



That refused to bow ; 

 Then a sudden blast came o'er it, 



And a whisper low 

 Made the leaves and branches quiver 



Shook the guilty tree ; 

 And the \oice was, ' Tremble ever 



To eternity : 



Be a lesson irom thee read 

 He that boweth not his head, 

 And obeyeth not his Maker, let him fear eternally ! ' 

 " So thou standest ever shaking, 



Ever quivering with fear, 

 For the voice is still upon thee, 



And the whisper near, 

 Like the guilty, conscience-haunted. 



And the name for thee 

 la 'the tree of many thoughts,' 

 Is ' the tree of many doubts ;' 

 And thy leaves are thoughts and doubtings, for thou 



Art the sinner's tree." 



The BIRCH order comes next. 



Coleridge calls the common Birch " The Lady of the Woods." 

 It bears its male and female flowers in different catkins, but on 

 the same tree (Betula alba, Plate XV., fig. 10). Its light 

 sprays and silvery bark are familiar to every one. 



The Weeping Birch is a Scotch variety of this. It adorns 

 the romantic heights and "passes" in the Highlands. 



