124 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



seems to me that a more significant and proper name 

 would be trembling aspen, for its leaves flutter 

 with the slightest zephyr. The tree may be easily 

 identified by the trembling of its leaves and the 

 whitish-green color of its trunk. It is never very 

 large, and although in northern Kentucky it may 

 attain a height of 45 feet, in other parts of the coun- 

 try it does not often exceed 25 feet. The flat, white- 

 veined, heart-shaped leaf, of a leathery texture and 

 dull, pale-green color, spreads out on a plane at right 

 angles with a singularly flattened long stem, so limber 

 that it allows the leaf to wiggle with the slightest stir 

 of air. If a small spray or branch of the tree is held 

 in the hand before the mouth and one blows gently 

 on the leaves, it will be seen at once how and why 

 they tremble in every passing breeze ; the swaying 

 motion is exactly like that of a bit of writing paper 

 allowed to fall through the air. The Lombardy 

 poplar leaf also has a long, flat stem, and it sways in 

 the same way. 



The aspen is sometimes mistaken for the gray or 

 white birch, because both trees have a whitish trunk, 

 spare horizontal lower and oblique upper limbs, and 

 both are similar in figure ; but the leaves of these two 

 trees are entirely different : the birch has an exceed- 

 ingly brilliant light-green foliage, which reflects the 

 sunlight and quite often dazzles the eye, while the 



