THE ASPEN 



THE trembling aspen leaf has been referred to in literature perhaps as often as any 

 other phase of tree life. Poets in all ages have utilized it as a simile that has 

 appealed to the consciousness of everyone. In the Odyssey we read: 



" Some wove the web, 

 Or twirled the spindle, sitting, with a quick 

 Light motion like the aspen's glancing leaves." 



In the later poets references to this leaf are legion. One of the most familiar is the 

 line in that charming verse of Lowell's, 



" Only the pattering aspen 



Made a sound of growing rain, 

 That fell faster and faster, 



Then faltered to silence again." 



The structural peculiarity which gives so distinctive a character to this most abun- 

 dant of the Poplars is well worth a moment's examination. The rather thin leaf has a 

 comparatively broad blade, set at right angles to the long, slender, greatly flattened peti- 

 ole. At its base this petiole is firmly attached to the twig by means of a clasping enlarge- 

 ment. As the leaves hang downward on these slender stems the slightest breath of wind 

 changes the position of the blades, twisting the petioles in so doing, and the elasticity 

 of the latter is continually bringing the blades back into their original position. Thus we 

 have the trembling foliage which is the most distinctive character of the tree. 



This Aspen is distinguished from the Large-toothed Aspen and the Cottonwood by 

 the finely serrate margins of the leaves. In winter and early spring it is distinguished from 

 the former by its smooth, varnish-like buds, and from the latter by its comparatively 

 small buds, which seldom exceed half an inch in length. These buds develop in earliest 

 spring into long, slender catkins, those on some trees being pollen-bearing and on other 

 trees seed-bearing. The pollen is cast to the winds in great abundance and wafted from 

 tree to tree. The seeds develop late in May or early in June, and are covered with a cottony 

 down by means of which they ride long distances on the wings of the wind. 



This is the species most likely to spring up in clearings which have been burned over. 

 In such a poplar grove the trees are gracefully symmetrical, with smooth, pale green bark 

 which is marked with darker blotches below the junction of the branches. The coloring 

 of this bark varies greatly with the weather conditions. After a period of rain it becomes 

 of an olive green, which is one of the most beautiful colors to be found in nature. Artists 

 have long delighted to paint the trunk of the Birch, but few of them apparently have ever 

 attempted to put on canvas this wonderful color of the Poplar trunk during the long 

 weeks of early spring. 



(74) 



