116 THE POPLAK AND THE WILLOW. 



grey and felty substance : in the black poplar they 

 are perfectly glabrous, nearly triangular, and with- 

 out lobes : in the aspen they are likewise glabrous, 

 circular, or nearly so, and with coarse indentations. 

 The epithet "black," is applied to the kind of poplar 

 so designated not because of actual nigritude in any 

 part,but as an antithesis to "white," the well-deserved 

 epithet of the abele. A similar antithesis gives the 

 name of " white " to certain varieties of grapes; and 

 of " black-thorn " to the snowy-flowered sloe : the 

 epithet in this latter case signifying leafless, as op- 

 posed to leafy. Whether all three of the European 

 poplars be aboriginally and veritably British is, after 

 all, not quite decided. These trees extend so far 

 to the east, and so early attracted the attention of 

 travellers and transplanters, that it is quite possible, 

 as above remarked, that they may have been intro- 

 duced in the first place from Asia. Support is 

 furnished to this idea by the etymology of the name, 

 which would seem to be radically identical with 

 "peepul," the name given in India to the sacred 

 fig, Ficus religiosa, and which would be extended 

 to the poplar because of the resemblance, as to gene- 

 ral figure, in the leaf, though the trees are not in 

 any degree related in regard to structure. 



The wood of the poplar is soft, light, and 

 whitish or pale yellow. Hence it is of little use in 

 the arts, except for certain descriptions of toys. 

 For the floors of apartments in houses, however, it is 



