114 THE POPLAR AND THE WILLOW. 



Unto that element. But long it could not be, 

 Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, 

 Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay, 

 To muddy death." 



The great botanical distinction between the wil- 

 low and poplar, compared with all other trees of 

 ordinary occurrence, has been mentioned above. 

 The discrimination of the particular kinds of wil- 

 low is not so easy, the species being numerous. 

 The larger kinds, natives of Great Britain, may be 

 told by their very long and narrow leaves, tapering 

 to each extremity. In the common willow, Salix 

 fragilis, so named from the readiness with which the 

 young branches break away from the main bough, 

 the leaves are green, without admixture of grey ; in 

 the white willow, Salix alba, every leaf is clothed 

 on both surfaces with white and silky hairs, which 

 give it the hoary appearance alluded to by the 

 poets. 



Besides these, there is the shining bay-leaved 

 willow, Salix pentandra, which has all the gloss and 

 lustre of some fine evergreen, and exudes an aromatic 

 odour from glands along the edges of the leaves. 

 The large honey yellow catkins contribute also to 

 render this tree very ornamental in early summer. 

 The poplars are few in number, and are at once 

 told by the shape and colour of the leaves. Those 

 of the abele, or white poplar, are angularly toothed 

 or lobed, and covered upon the under-surface with a 



