THE ABELE 39 



surface of the leaves ; whilst Professor Marshall Ward 

 seems to favour the view that it enables " otherwise 

 partially shaded leaves to swing often into the light, 

 and to catch the breezes." 



The Abele or White Poplar (Populus alba L.) 

 grows rapidly to a height of fifty or even 100 

 feet, and reaches four feet in diameter. It has a 

 smooth grey bark interrupted at many points by the 

 enlarged lenticels, but neither so lustrous nor so split 

 up as that of the Birch. The branches spread 

 horizontally, and the young twigs are covered 

 with a white cottony down which rubs off readily. 

 The buds are similarly covered, but have none of 

 the viscid resinous secretion which occurs in some 

 other Poplars. The foliage is very variable. The 

 leaves at the bases of shoots, on weak shoots or on old 

 trees, may be ovate, or have bluntly angular lobes, an 

 inch to an inch and a half long, but generally broader, 

 covered with a dense white down beneath, and, 

 when young, also pubescent on their upper surfaces. 

 Those on the numerous suckers, and at the ends of 

 the strong shoots, are larger, reaching even six inches 

 in length and nearly as much in width, and having 

 from three to five palmately arranged triangular lobes. 

 Appearing first in March, they become thicker as 

 they get older and lose the down on their upper 

 surfaces, which become a deep green. 



The name Abele and its variants are of Dutch 

 origin, and the tree itself may have been introduced 

 from Flanders ; but we may well hesitate to accept the 

 suggestion that this name has anything to do with 

 the city of Arbela in the plains of Nineveh. It may 



