126 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Liombardy Poplar Populus dilatata. 



sation. It is, perhaps, the lightest of timber, and, 

 therefore, well calculated for packing-cases; and 

 though soft, it will bear some strain without break- 

 ing. The vessels in which the people of Lombardy 

 carry and squeeze their grapes are all made of this 

 poplar; and they also frequently train their vines 

 to the tree. In England it is chiefly used as an 

 ornamental tree. The Lombardy poplar is, so far as 

 has been observed, the only spiry tree that is deci- 

 duous, or sheds its leaves: the tree which it most 

 nearly resembles in its form, though not in its foliage, 

 is the cypress. 



WILLOW, &c. 



Of the willow, called Salix, from the Latin word 

 which signifies " to spring up," and so denominated 

 on account of the great rapidity of its growth, there 

 are many species, of which not fewer than one 

 hundred and forty-one have been enumerated by Sir 

 James Smith. Some of these, however, very much 

 resemble each other, so that the species of willows are 

 not so well defined as those of some other trees. Of 

 this great number, it will be necessary to mention 



